Tangled Hearts
by Teigo
Summary: Love is complicated. Nobody understands this fact better than Ulrich Stern and Yumi Ishiyama. Their relationship has always been one of delicately balanced orbits, two bodies held captive by a tangled web of desires and insecurities. But the two will come to discover just how confusing love can really be as they begin to uncover feelings that drive them in unexpected directions.
1. Chapter 1

_"Unrequited"_

Sissi stormed into her dorm room and slammed the door behind her. Tears were spilling down her cheeks, and she threw herself onto her bed and buried her face into the pillow, breaking down into heavy sobs. She had never felt so horrible in all her life. She was furious, humiliated, but above all else there was the terrible aching in her heart. It wasn't fair. Why couldn't he love her the way she loved him?

At the time it had seemed like such a perfect plan. The ever elusive Ulrich Stern had gotten himself served detention earlier that day, following an incident in one of the science labs during their Biology class. His sentence, janitorial duty to be served after classes, which meant that he would be alone and, more importantly, away from a certain Yumi Ishiyama. The opportunity had been too irresistible to ignore. All she had to do was slip in, squeeze Ulrich into a tight corner, and put on the old Sissi charm. With no other distractions between them, it would only be a matter of time before she finally broke through his resistance once and for all. It was simply a matter of wearing him down, stripping away his barriers piece by piece until he could no longer hide his true feelings from her. Unfortunately, like so many other plans before, it was only destined to blow up in her face.

It was in that same classroom that the opportunity had presented itself. She had slipped in on her darling while he was serving mop duty in the deserted science lab and had managed to pin Ulrich between herself and one of the room's sturdy lab benches, putting on her most charming persona as she tried to sweet talk him into submission. She had been prepared for resistance—there always was with the stubborn boy—even relishing in the challenge, but what ultimately followed she had never anticipated. Of course, she had been unyielding in her persistence, certain that Ulrich would cave if only she could push him hard enough. But pushing him had been the wrong thing to do, as was made abundantly clear by him finally unleashing himself on her in an explosion of rage. The next thing she knew, it was she who was pinned down as Ulrich loomed over her, his arms braced on either side of her, hands gripping the lab bench behind her with white-knuckle force as he bored into her with a look that was pure loathing.

She had seen Ulrich angry before on so many countless occasions it was practically routine, but this time had been something entirely different. It was the first time she had ever been terrified of him. His words came in a torrent of swift, vicious insults, tearing into her in a way that hurt worse than she could possibly have imagined. He wouldn't let her go until he had poured every bit of hate he felt into her, then he stormed off in a fury, leaving her alone and broken. It had taken every bit of strength she had to keep from collapsing to the floor in tears right then and there.

A long time passed before the tears had finally run dry, and in their wake Sissi was left feeling empty and exhausted. She turned listlessly onto her back, clutching her now damp pillow tightly against her chest, and she wiped the tear stains from her face and swept away the matted strands of hair that clung wetly to her skin, settling a glazed stare onto the ceiling overhead. It didn't take long for her thoughts to find him again, an inescapable tide rolling in to bathe the sands of her mind in his very essence.

Why did she have to fall in love with him? Why couldn't it have just stayed some silly childhood fixation? It would have made things so much easier. From the moment she had first laid eyes on Ulrich, Sissi had been irresistibly drawn to him. At first it had been simple fascination. It was his quiet, brooding demeanor that had first caught her attention, the cool indifference with which he confronted the world around him. Sure, he was handsome—oh yes, he was indeed handsome—but more than that there was an air of mystery around him, an aura of secrecy begging to be explored. His resistance to her early attempts to glimpse beneath that stoic facade only fueled her interest in him all the more. Interest would eventually grow into obsession. She desperately wanted to know what kind of boy lay beneath such iron defenses.

But that had only been the catalyst for what was to follow. In time Ulrich would slowly begin to open up to her. Perhaps he was simply being nice to her, or perhaps he was just worn down by her endless pestering, but to her, each time he would grudgingly share with her some new, private detail about himself or his life, each time he would allow his defenses to slip even the tiniest bit when they were together, it felt like she was being given something precious, a privileged gift meant specially for her. It was easy for her silly young mind to imagine there was some deeper meaning behind those gestures. Of course it had to mean they had become close, obviously so much closer than mere friends. Why else would he choose her to open himself up to when he would do so with no one else? Soon she would convince herself that it must mean that he liked her and that he clearly wanted her to know it too. Then she would realize that she liked him as well.

From then on she was completely devoted to him.

There was no turning back now, no changing the course of her heart, no undoing the iron grip that her feelings for Ulrich had on her. She was in love with him. It was that simple. She could no more shut out those feelings than she could snuff out the light of the sun. But he didn't love her back, that much was painfully clear. Quite the contrary, he seemed to openly despise her, all too happy to remind her again and again that she wasn't good enough for him, that she wasn't good enough for anyone. But he didn't know, couldn't possibly know, how she really felt about him, how much she genuinely cared about him, how desperately she wanted to be a part of what made him happy, those precious secrets she wouldn't dare utter aloud.

But it was obvious he didn't think she was capable of such feelings. Sissi certainly wasn't oblivious to what the world thought about her. Her reputation as the school monster had long since been solidified in the minds of her peers. She was just a cruel and heartless bitch after all, incapable of loving anyone other than herself, and everyone knew it. Ulrich's stupid friends were never any help either, all too eager to join in on the Sissi bashing parade that never ceased to follow her everywhere she went. Odd could certainly be called the worst of the three, always ready to throw an insult her way even when she was only passing by, like her mere presence was somehow unbearably offensive. At least Jeremie made some small attempt to be civil, even if that meant simply disregarding her presence as if, at best, she were an inconvenience better left ignored, but even he was capable of some pretty cutting remarks when the mood suited him.

And then there was Yumi.

At the thought Sissi was overcome with bitter hatred, and she wrenched the fabric of her pillow in her grip as a wave of hot fury surged through her. Yumi, the girl who had come out of nowhere and stolen Ulrich's heart without even trying, the girl who somehow had managed to do effortlessly what Sissi had been striving for years to accomplish. She had slipped right through Ulrich's barriers, had gotten close enough to see all the most intimate parts of him, the parts that were supposed to be meant for her. And now she had him wrapped around her finger, so intoxicated by her that he no longer even gave Sissi any thought. His devotion to her was absolutely infuriating. He would never look at Sissi the way he looked at her.

The anger quickly bled out of her until all that remained in its place was an utterly hollow feeling permeating her to the core, and her grip on the pillow went slack as the strength fled her body so that she only held it limply against her now. Soon the pain was creeping its way back into her, hot and piercing and relentless. The edges of her vision began to go blurry, but she fought back the tears this time, furiously scrubbing her face with her palms to keep the touch of moisture off her skin.

She was done with crying. She had shed so many tears over her past failures, and where had it gotten her? It didn't change the fact that it was her own fault for letting herself be fooled over and over again into thinking she ever even had a chance. It was obvious she had always just been deluding herself. Of course it was never about her reputation. She and Ulrich had been acquainted well before that particular stain had ever emerged on her life, and he had been no less detached back then. The bitter truth was he that had simply never had any feelings for her to begin with. There was no denying it. He had only ever been indulging her, just a silly, stupid little girl with a crazy infatuation who could never seem to take the hint that she wasn't wanted. And when he had found someone that suited him better he had abandoned her without a second thought.

Still, how could he be so cruel to her? Did he really hate her that much? Was she really that repulsive to him? For all she had suffered, it certainly felt that way. How many countless times had he publicly humiliated her, told her how stupid and ugly and worthless he thought she was and laughing about it along with all his friends? Yet there had been those rare moments where he had actually been kind to her, moments when she could have sworn she saw genuine affection in those lovely brown eyes of his, always teasing her with hopeful possibility. If only there was some way she could know the answer for sure, if she could know without any doubt if Ulrich had any feelings for her hidden away beneath that cold exterior of his, maybe not love, but something that, with a little nurturing, could be coaxed into it.

Maybe if he knew how she truly felt about him. Perhaps then he might finally be able open his heart to her.

It hit her then like a thunderbolt, an overwhelming conviction that shook her to the core, and all at once Sissi knew what she had to do. She had to know without any doubt where Ulrich stood on his feelings towards her, and the only way she could be sure he would give her his sincere answer was if she finally laid her own heart bare to him. She couldn't delude herself any longer. The thought of absolute rejection terrified her, but then again, where was she now? Where had her silly fantasies gotten her after all this time? She couldn't keep going on like this. She couldn't keep torturing herself because she was too scared to hear what the real answer might be. She had to find out the truth once and for all. She was going to find Ulrich and she was going to confess everything.

It was with that final thought that Sissi climbed out of her bed with a renewed strength, moved purposefully to her wardrobe to snatch up a jacket and throw it briskly over her shoulders. She made a brief stop at her vanity to tidy up her appearance, careful to remove any signs that she had been sulking. When she was satisfied with her work she charged resolutely out the door.

Before this day was over, Ulrich Stern would know exactly how she felt about him, and she would finally know, once and for all, how he really felt about her.

* * *

The night was clear and brisk, the stars bright and shimmering in the cloudless sky as the voluminous disk of the waxing moon cast its muted glow across the still grounds of Kadic Academy, bathing the landscape in pale luminosity. On a secluded wooden bench, tucked away in a remote corner of the campus grounds, two teenagers sat shoulder to shoulder, speaking in voices low and hushed against the surrounding quiet.

Had he been asked to give a description of the perfect girl, Ulrich would have described Yumi Ishiyama right down to the smallest detail. She was so unlike any other girl he had ever known, a league of her own, an army of one, strong, smart, confident, iron willed and loyal to the end. He had had feelings for her ever since he had first met her back in his first year at Kadic, the tall, mysterious Japanese girl with the stubborn attitude and an equally fiery temper, a girl who, at the time, would hardly give him the time of day.

Five years had passed since he had first looked into the captivating face of that girl, a face that had since matured into a mask of such stunning beauty that could steal his breath away without her ever even trying. How long had he struggled to tell her how he felt about her? How many times were the words just on his lips, ready to burst forth and betray everything he had hid from her, his endless affection for her, his longing for something more between them than simple friendship, his utter devotion to her that would have him face down mortal danger if it meant keeping her safe from harm? It had seemed so unlikely that their friendship could have ever made it this far, as rocky a road as it had been between the two of them. There had been so many false starts, so many misunderstandings, so many explosive fights between them. It was like his relationship with Yumi was something fragile, that he simply couldn't trust himself to handle it with anything but the gentlest care, lest it shatter like brittle glass. But here she was now, sitting beside him, their hands loosely intertwined between them, as close to her as he could have ever hoped to be. It was a symbol of how far they had come, and of all the possibilities that lay before them.

It was the sound of soft laughter that roused him from his reverie, and Ulrich found himself slipping out of a trance he hadn't realized he had fallen into, returning to the night and the stars and the girl sitting close beside him. When he looked over at his companion he saw her watching him inquisitively, those pretty eyes of hers studying his features with keen interest, the corners of her lips curled in amusement. He felt the skin of his cheeks warm under her steady gaze and was grateful for the darkness surrounding them.

"What? What's so funny?"

Yumi's smile only widened in response. "You had this big goofy grin on your face, and your eyes were miles away." She leaned towards him, her eyes searching his provocatively, and her voice lowered, going soft and airy. "Just what were you thinking about exactly?"

"Oh..." Ulrich stalled as embarrassment took hold of him. It didn't help that the unexpected dip in her tone elicited a not unpleasant sensation that started from the pit of his stomach and tingled up the length of his spine, muddying his thinking and making him all the more self-conscious. With an awkward smile he shied his gaze away from hers, letting the grey shapes and outlines of the landscape before him preoccupy his sight as he wrestled to clear his unruly thoughts. "I was just, you know, remembering how things used to be between us." He smirked at her then. "Like how hard it was just to get you to talk to me, let alone to like me."

Yumi pulled a face in return. "Yeah, not the proudest point of your life." She then grinned good-naturedly at him before turning to stare off into the distance with a dreamy look. "I was pretty sure you had a deathwish, the way you wound up pretty much stalking me after we first met. You were so annoyingly persistent. I must have threatened you at least a thousand times. You don't know how close I was to actually following through with them too. Of course," she set her eyes back on Ulrich, face filled with warmth and affection, "I'm glad I didn't manage to scare you off, or I might have never known what a great person you really were. Though you certainly were a glutton for punishment," she added with a mocking grin. "I'm sure most boys would have given up after having their arm dislocated...twice."

Ulrich winced as he recalled those two painful incidents, both of which had occurred during sparring matches he had with Yumi in the past, wanting to prove that he could keep up with her no matter what she threw at him. They were just a fraction of the many injuries he had endured when he was still trying to impress her. Of course, he told himself, the pain was definitely worth it in the end. He would endure a thousand more if it meant he could always be near her.

The time had slipped by unnoticed by the pair under the unchanging veil of darkness, absorbed as they were in their private exchange in the quiet sanctuary of their secret spot. Their conversation had long since dissolved into a fairly pointless, meandering back and forth, more an excuse to avoid the inevitable task of having to part ways than for any investment in the topics themselves. As it was, when Ulrich finally had the thought to glance at the glowing timepiece on his cell phone, his eyes widened in alarm. It was late, much later than he had realized.

"Shit!" He turned to Yumi with a look of restrained panic. "It's almost midnight. I seriously have to get back to my dorm before somebody realizes I'm missing."

Now Yumi's expression mirrored his own. "Oh god, my parents are going to kill me. I didn't even realize we've been talking for that long." But in spite of her apparent urgency, she seemed unwilling to tear her gaze away from his. She hadn't budged from her spot on the bench. "I guess that's what happens when two people have such a strong connection, you know?" she said, almost dreamily. "No matter how much time you have, it never seems like enough."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Ulrich's eyes fell to rest on their still linked hands, tracing over the lines of their intertwined fingers, and he found himself more than reluctant to give up the warmth of her touch. How long would it be before they would find another opportunity to share this kind of closeness. "I'm never ready for it to end."

"Guess all we can do is make the most of it, right?"

Something in Yumi's tone brought Ulrich's eyes back to hers. She was giving him a look now that he couldn't quite decipher, her eyes probing him with a new intensity, roaming, searching, never once leaving his own. Ulrich was suddenly very aware of just how little space there was between them. The small gap that had been their mutual boundary when they had first stolen away to this isolated bench under the cloak of darkness, eager to escape from the distractions of the world and the prying eyes of their nosy peers, had all but disappeared now, and Yumi's pale features stood out with vivid clarity as her face hovered dangerously close to his own. He could trace the alluring shape of her eyes, eyes that were a rich chestnut brown in the full light of the sun. In the soft moonlight they were no less stunning to look at.

Time stretched on, and Ulrich felt as if an enormous tension were building between the two of them as they continued to gaze at one another for what was beginning to feel like an eternity. He desperately wished he could know what was going on in Yumi's head at that very moment. His heart, calm and steady only moments before, was now pounding madly in his chest. The temperature of his skin beneath his clothes had grown unbearably hot in spite of the coolness of the night. He wanted so badly to close that remaining gap between them, but his body had become stone, immovable despite the desperate pleas coming from his brain.

There was the feeling of slender fingers slipping free of his own, then the chill of the night air against his bare palm. All at once Ulrich came back to himself as if snapping out of a trance, just in time to notice as Yumi straightened herself, perhaps a little too quickly, and turned her face away from his so that he could no longer make out her expression. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

Her tone, too, had shifted, sounding far too even, far too measured. She stood up then, turned back to him briefly with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Goodnight Ulrich."

And with that she turned away from him one last time as she made her way back up the path towards the campus gate with hurried strides.

"See you, Yumi." The numb farewell came out almost as an afterthought. Ulrich was still recovering from the arresting spell that had just moments before left him completely paralyzed. He watched with rising dismay as her retreating figure melted into the grey landscape. It wasn't until she was out of sight that he allowed himself to let out a dismal sigh.

There she goes, he thought with bitter disappointment. He couldn't believe himself. He had, yet again, let another perfect opportunity slip past him.

He rose to his feet then and jammed his hands into his pockets, silently cursing himself as he trudged his way towards the Kadic dormitories. Fury boiled up within him, aimed at his own unbelievable weakness. It was like so many times before, so close, yet when he could feel the energy at its highest, he had choked. Why couldn't he bring himself to act on his feelings for Yumi? It wasn't like he didn't know if she felt the same way about him. On the contrary, they had long ago admitted their feelings for one another. They were in fact closer now than they ever had been. If only he could just take that one final step, that one crucial move that would finally take their relationship to the next level, but he always managed to blow it every single time.

Pathetic. That's what he was. Pathetic.

The dormitory came into sight as Ulrich emerged from the woods, a grey silhouette against the dark backdrop of the night sky, white washed in the pale light of the moon. Lost in his brooding, he failed to notice the lone figure perched on the stoop before the main entrance, his eyes set squarely on the ground in front of his feet. It was the sound of crunching foliage that shook him from his thoughts and he ground to a halt, his head snapping up and in the direction of the noise, senses on high alert. He could see a figure in the distance moving towards him, but in the darkness he couldn't quite make out who it was and he watched it's approach with a wary eye. As the figure drew closer its features became clearer beneath the dim moonlight until Ulrich finally recognized who it was, and he scowled with contempt. "Sissi! What are you doing here?" he snapped coldly. "Don't I get enough of you during the day?"

At that moment, Ulrich wanted nothing more than to chase away the unwelcome intruder, to tell her off in the most spiteful way he could think of. But as he caught the full sight of her face he found himself unable to do so. Her eyes were flooded with such intense emotion that it was disarming. Stripped bare of that ever present aura of self indulgent arrogance and intolerable narcissism, she looked somehow exposed, fragile, like she might crumble at the slightest touch. She had stopped short at his remark a few paces away, and was now simply staring at him with a look of clear apprehension. Ulrich felt an unexpected sting of guilt at having lashed out at her. He took a few cautious steps forward, closing the distance between them so he could see her better. Now every feature of hers stood out clearly in the pale light, and it left an unsettling impression as he took all of it in.

"Sissi?" He spoke softly this time. "Is everything okay?"

She bit her lip then, turned her face away from his as she wrung her hands together in a clear fit of nerves. "Ulrich," she began in a soft, trembling voice. "Please don't be angry at me. You weren't in your room. I thought that if I waited here you would have to show up eventually."

It disturbed him, the way she spoke to him so meekly now, the way she pleaded for him not to rebuke her, like she expected him to bite her head off at any moment. It was so completely unlike her, so completely opposite the bold, outspoken girl who was never afraid to speak her mind, even when no one had bothered to ask for it. When she did lift her gaze back to his, Sissi's eyes were deep pools of intense emotion, desperate and pleading. "There's something I really need to tell you...something important. Just hear me out. Please."

She paused, watched him anxiously, her eyes roaming over his features as if reading him for signs of danger. He didn't answer—he was simply too unsettled to respond. She seemed to take his silence as consent as she continued on.

"Look, I should have told you this a long time ago. It's just that I was always so afraid that you would only throw it all back in my face like a big joke and make me feel horrible for it. I couldn't face that kind of rejection. I couldn't face it so much so that I thought it was better that you thought I was just some shallow, spoiled brat. You could say all the horrible things you wanted, but you could never go after my secret, like somehow that made all the difference. Crazy, right?" She chanced a glance at him, smiled weakly, before looking away again. "It was stupid of me to think I could run away from rejection just by hiding my true feelings from you. I'm tired of pretending that if I just don't say it out loud that I can't get hurt. It does hurt, Ulrich. It hurts so much I can't stand it, every single time. I can't keep it in anymore. If I do...it'll tear me apart."

Sissi fell silent once more, looking back up to meet Ulrich's eyes, and he could clearly see in hers the fear she spoke of, the fear of someone who was about to bare herself completely knowing what she said could be used against her, use it to hurt her and hurt her badly. He was ashamed to admit she had every right to expect that from him. How often was it that he had ever shown her actual kindness in the past? Why should she expect any different now? He could see the struggle in her now as she held his gaze firmly, practically hear the internal debate screaming in her head as she worked herself up to the task at hand. Ulrich didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say, so he simply waited as the seconds ground past with unbearable slowness.

He was startled then when Sissi finally gave a sudden exclamation, "I love you, okay?" She quickly covered her face with her hands, looking too humiliated now to face him. "There, I said it. I love you Ulrich. I love you so much I can't even begin to describe it." With great effort, it seemed, she dropped her hands away from her face so she could meet his eyes once again, looking nothing less than perfectly vulnerable. "I'm pretty sure as long as I've known you I've had feelings for you. Every time I see you, every time I'm near you, it's so intense it's unbearable. I just want you so badly it hurts, and it drives me absolutely crazy that you won't ever let me get close to you. I try so hard and all you ever do is make fun of me and push me away. It hurts so much Ulrich. You have no clue how much it hurts. And all I want is just to be close to you. That's all I've ever wanted. But you don't even give me a second thought."

Ulrich was completely dumbstruck, only able to stare incredulously at the girl in front of him as she continued to pour out her feelings to him. He couldn't have heard her right. Sissi in love? With him? Somehow he couldn't seem to wrap his head around the notion. He had always seen Sissi as nothing more than a shallow girl, a shallow girl with a shallow infatuation, with him as the unlucky target. He was certain she was just trying to bag him as a trophy boyfriend, probably to satisfy her extreme vanity and boost her status among the other girls in school. He had never once considered there were any real feelings behind her advances. Truthfully the thought had never even occurred to him, nor would he have even been capable of imagining it had someone had the audacity to suggest it to him. But those eyes. The plain truth in them was impossible to deny. This was not a trick. This was real. Sissi really meant every word she said.

"You have to understand," she continued. "Everything I've ever done was just to get you to like me. I always thought that if I just tried hard enough I might actually have a chance with you. But I can't do this anymore, Ulrich. I can't just keep getting hurt over and over again. All I can do is try to figure out if there is even a chance we could have something together. So please, _please_ , I just need you to tell me...to tell me how you really feel about me. Tell me if there is even the slightest chance there could be anything between us."

It was as if Ulrich had just been handed a ticking time bomb with no clear instructions on how he was meant to diffuse it. He now felt very exposed, vulnerable, all his usual defenses rendered useless by this staggering revelation laid out before him. He found himself wishing now that this was the familiar annoying Sissi standing before him. At least then he would know exactly what to say to her. He would chase her off without a second thought. With Sissi it was always an easy task of telling her off. She always had a way of being obnoxious, arrogant, and altogether insufferable to be around. But this time was different. This time she was being candid, sincere, _human_ , spilling her guts out to him and leaving herself emotionally bare. He knew that if he said the wrong thing to her now he could really hurt her, and he simply couldn't bring himself to do that, not even to a girl like her.

Sissi's eyes remained locked onto his own with alarming intensity, an expression that was hope and need and terror all balled up into one. She looked not so much like she might break at any moment as she might shatter, a fine crystal glass set to a straining resonance just shy of the point at which it would burst into a million glittering fragments. As he struggled for the proper words he quickly realized he had never actually considered the question before now. How did he really feel about Sissi? Without a doubt, she was annoying, vain, cruel and manipulative, all good enough reasons on their own to dislike her. But she was also tender, protective, fiercely passionate and surprisingly loyal to her own. They had shared something akin to friendship at some distant point in their lives before a falling out between them had put an abrupt end to all that. In spite of that there was still a fondness there, he realized, even after all this time. Deep down he did still care about her. But it would be a lie to say that there was any chance he could love her back the way she clearly wanted him to. He had to admit there were times when he had felt a unique affection for her, rare times when she managed to act like a normal person, when her softer side would come peeking through the ice and venom, but it was never in a romantic sense. Besides, those feelings were reserved solely for Yumi, and that, he was sure, was never going to change.

Defeated, Ulrich said the only thing he could think of. "Sissi, you have to understand. You aren't exactly easy to get along with. You have a way of being—well—incredibly mean and obnoxious. I mean, you're hardly ever nice to me or any of my friends, and I swear you're always up to something—"

"So you really do hate me then, don't you?" Sissi cut in sharply. Her eyes took on a glossy sheen beneath the glow of the moon as her face twisted into a pained grimace.

"No, that's not what I'm saying—," Ulrich desperately tried to correct her, but Sissi hastily cut him off again, her voice now trembling dangerously.

"You don't have to explain. I understand _perfectly_. I know I'm not the nicest girl you've ever known, but all I ever really wanted was to be a part of your life. For once, just once, I wanted you to look at me...to look at me the way you look at Yumi. I wanted you to see me as something more than just some annoying girl you couldn't wait to get away from. I thought that if I just pushed hard enough that maybe something would give, that maybe you would start to develop feelings for me too, maybe even fall in love with me. But I guess I was just living in a stupid fairy tale. It was just a pathetic dream that had no hope of ever coming true." Sissi turned away from Ulrich then, hiding the tears that were now streaming freely down her face. "Well you don't have to worry about me anymore, Ulrich. I promise I won't bother you or your friends ever again."

Before Ulrich could say anything else Sissi took off towards the dormitory in a run, the sounds of her sobs trailing behind her. A terrible feeling washed over him as he watched her fleeing form disappear into the building. He didn't think it would have hurt him so much to see Sissi in any kind of distress. In fact, he could normally expect satisfaction at seeing the usually insufferable girl cut down a peg, but seeing that wounded look in her eyes had hurt worse than he could have imagined. He felt a powerful urge to go after her, but held himself back. What could he possibly do now? What could he possibly say that would change anything? He didn't love Sissi. As much as he wanted to spare her from the pain of that truth, she had to accept that he could not possibly return her feelings. Maybe, in a twisted sort of way, this was actually a good thing. If she was no longer obsessing over him, if she was free to choose from among the countless other boys who seemed eager for her attention, she could have a real chance at someone who would actually return her affections, someone who would do a better job of making her happy than he ever could. There were certainly plenty of better options out there as far as he was concerned.

Ulrich shook the thoughts from his head, only having managed to make himself even more depressed. Right now he just wanted to forget everything that had happened tonight and simply move on with his sorry life. His heart now even heavier than before, he continued on his way to his own dorm and, hopefully, the blissful escape of sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

_"Confrontations"_

It began as a sudden sensation of falling, then her body gave a sudden lurch, and the next thing she knew she was sitting bolt upright in her seat, her heart hammering in her chest. For a single disorienting instant she had no sense of where she was, then the cues cemented into place around her, the classroom, the ranks of lethargic teenagers slouching at their desks, the dry lecture droning in her ears from the head of the room—a lecture, she quickly remembered, she was supposed to be paying attention to.

Yumi Ishiyama blinked hard, shaking off the last of the lingering haze as she came fully alert, and promptly set upon scolding herself as she realized how close she had come to dozing off in the middle of her class this time around. For the better part of the day she had been at war with her eyelids, the indisputable side effect of her late night escapade with a certain boy who had been occupying her thoughts quite a lot as of late. It might not have been so bad if she could have gotten to sleep as soon as she had made it home, nearly half past midnight according to the household clocks, but she had been far too troubled when her head had finally hit the pillow to drift off proper until hours later. It wouldn't have surprised her if she had only gotten one or two hours of sleep for her all her effort.

The only saving grace was that this was her last class of the day. She had managed to fend off her fatigue so far without incident. She merely had to hold out just a little while longer and then her struggle would finally be over. She would take it easy for the rest of the day after that, pamper herself for her heroic display of discipline, and make sure to avoid any further late night invitations that came her way. With some effort she shook away the last of the lingering cobwebs from her mind and focused her attention back to the head of the classroom, back to the droning professor and the dull lecture that had so far been doing very little to help her combat her pathological tiredness. She made an admirable effort for what it was worth, but little could be done about the tediously boring subject she was being forced to attend to, and it wasn't long at all before her mind began to wander once more.

The second shock hit her worse than the first, Yumi finding herself jolted out of another haze by the sharp peal of the final bell slicing through the dull murmur of the classroom, joined promptly by a noisy chorus of chair legs scraping tile and an eruption of chatter as the entire class came abruptly to life around her. She didn't need to shake off the weariness this time around thanks to the fresh surge of adrenaline now coursing through her veins. When she felt assured her heart wasn't going to implode in her chest, she quickly gathered up her materials and pressed eagerly for the door. Unfortunately, the delay caused by her untimely lapse in focus had cost her, as she now had to share the narrow doorway with the rest of the class, as everyone insisted on leaving at exactly the same instant. She might have exercised restraint and waited for the blockage to clear before shoving her own way through, but she was just as desperate to get out as the rest of them. So much for pride.

But Yumi immediately forgave herself as she was hit with the familiar rush of liberation. The hallways, quiet and desolate only moments before, were now bustling with activity as students poured out of their classrooms and clustered together to herd through the corridors in a tangled mob, the lethargy of a long school day fading with the anticipation of imminent freedom. She weaved her way through the sea of bodies with single-minded purpose, fixated on escaping the constraints of the school interior, hungry for the feeling of the sun on her skin and the open air, desperately in need of a contrast to the stale confinement of a classroom. In her mind she made a quick tally of her agenda. Her first stop, as it always was, would be the vending the machines stationed in the north quad where she and her friends routinely met up after classes to compare notes on how the rest of their afternoons looked and how they might spend the remaining daylight. They had already agreed over the lunch break that they would all ditch campus after classes for an adventure filled afternoon out in the city. Well, three of them anyway, to her great annoyance. It was just a matter of sorting out the exact details of what kind of trouble they were going to get themselves into when they finally caught up with one another.

Salvation was soon upon her as Yumi rounded one final corner and caught the glorious sight of the entryway leading out onto the north quad. She could see clear blue sky through the glass doors ahead of her and could practically taste the crisp autumn air waiting for her just beyond. She wore a smile of triumph as she picked up her pace, threading artfully through the ever thickening crowds around her as the greater student body converged from all corners in their collective rush for freedom. In her single minded focus, she was entirely unaware of the stealthy body quickly closing in on her from behind.

"GOTCHA!"

Yumi jerked violently forward as hooked fingers dug suddenly and unexpectedly into her ribs from behind, letting loose an uncharacteristically high shriek that rang with impressive clarity through the crowded halls and turned more that a few heads her way, to her absolute horror. It took only an instant for her to recover herself, and then in a fury she whirled around to face her assailant, her mind boiling with murderous intent. She wasn't sure what she might have done to the person in question once she had gotten her hands on them, but surely city officials would be carrying a bloody corpse off the school campus if she had her way, and a closed casket funeral would have been the only option after she was done with them. Except that her list of options for retaliation fell considerably short of her intentions when she caught sight of the sharply contrasting hues of orange and and violet, the shock of wild blonde hair streaked through with flame colored highlights from roots to tips.

 _"Odd!_ "

Her cheeks burned as she pinned Kadic's most notorious prankster with a deadly glare. Odd Della Robbia simply grinned back at her, his expression smug and triumphant. "Sorry Yumi, but that was one opportunity I just couldn't pass up."

He looked anything but sorry.

Yumi balled her hands into fists at her side, looming forward and glowering with as much menace as she could summon, given the target. "I'm going to kill you Della Robbia." Then she whipped her head in the direction of the brunet boy standing a few paces behind him, his face plastered with an amused smirk as he watched the two of them in action. "And you! You just let that happen."

"Hey, don't look at me." Ulrich Stern raised his palms in front of him as in warding, though he never stopped smiling. "I had absolutely nothing to do with that. It was all Odd's idea."

"You're such a liar." Yumi narrowed her eyes on him in a stare burning with accusation. This only prompted Ulrich's grin to split even wider, a sure sign of his guilt. Odd then quietly sidled up beside her, leaned in close to her ear with one hand cupped over his mouth like a conspirator. When he spoke it was in a loud stage whisper everyone could hear.

" _He was the one who dared me to do it._ "

"What? C'mon Odd, seriously?"

Ulrich's brows rose skyward at his friend's betrayal, but even with all pretenses now thrown out the window he was still grinning away like he had just won the lottery. It would have been infuriating if it wasn't so endearing. Yumi tried to look genuinely angry, really she did, but she couldn't seem make the expression stick with her two friends grinning at her like a pair of cheshire cats. To save face, she promptly turned away before their infectious smiles could force her own face to follow suit.

"Ugh, you guys are such pains. I don't know why I'm even friends with you losers."

With that she proceeded to march away from the pair with shoulders straight and head held high in an air of lofty disregard, the cold shoulder executed as high art. The two boys simply flanked her on either side without missing a beat, falling into step with her as they collectively carved a path through the cluster of bodies around them, closing the remaining distance to the entryway to the north quad. Ulrich took the opportunity to flash an apologetic smile her way. She sniffed derisively and rolled her eyes at the gesture, but finally let a smile flitter across her lips, to which he beamed in reply. In spite of everything, it was impossible to suppress the flutter in her chest.

"So, how was the last class of the day?" Ulrich probed.

"History," Yumi said flatly. Her two companions gave her identical looks of grave sympathy.

"History lessons are always a total snoresfest," said Odd. "I'm usually tuned out in the first five minutes. I swear, if it wasn't for Einstein's obsessive note taking I'd miss out on most of the material for sure."

"Speaking of, where is Jeremie? He didn't come out with you guys?" Yumi had already noted Jeremie's absence. It was doing nothing to improve the irritation simmering quietly in the back of her mind. He definitely seemed to be pushing all the wrong buttons today.

"He took off first thing without saying a word to either of us," Odd answered with an air of offence. "You wouldn't know it by looking at him but he can move pretty darn fast when he wants to. He was gone before we even realized it."

"He's gone straight back to work on Lyoko, as usual," Ulrich declared matter-of-factly. "I'd bet money he's in his dorm right now, already zoned out in front of his computer. There will be no getting him out of there now unless you set the building on fire. Even then, I have my doubts."

Yumi frowned. "Well if he thinks he's getting off that easily, he's got another thing coming. Since he seems to be so clearly intent on avoiding us, we'll just have to pay him a little visit, won't we?"

Ulrich and Odd shared an obvious look from either side of her, but neither voiced any disagreement. They simply followed her lead when she steered an alternate course that led them in the direction of the dormitories.

Before long, the three of them arrived before Jeremie's dorm room. The door was, not surprisingly, closed. Jeremie seemed to go out of his way these days to put up barriers between himself and the outside world, physically and metaphorically. Odd took the liberty of knocking, banging on the door so hard it rattled against the frame.

"Knock, knock. Anybody home?"

Silence.

He tried the knob. Locked. He gave a nonchalant shrug.

"Guess he's not in. So much for that."

"Huh. I thought for sure he'd be here," Ulrich mused. "May as well try calling him. Maybe he actually had something not Lyoko related to take care of. We could probably pin him down then." He took out his cell phone and called Jeremie's number. After a few seconds pause he slipped the phone back into his pocket and shrugged. "Straight to voicemail. Looks like he's gone off the radar this time."

"Big surprise," Odd said airily. "Einstein's been ducking out on us for weeks now. What did you expect? Well, if he really wants to be left to himself I say we let him. No need to waste a perfectly good day on his account."

" _Odd!_ " Ulrich gave his friend a sharp look and tilted his head pointedly in Yumi's direction. Odd was unfazed.

"What? It's not like we haven't tried a million times to drag him out into the open already. If Jeremie's too good to hang out with his friends that's his problem."

Ulrich simply shook his head before turning to give Yumi a sympathetic look. "Sorry Yumi. We tried."

Yumi didn't respond. She simply stared absently at the locked door in front of them, her expression unreadable.

"Well if we're all done here, I say we get a move on already," Odd continued. "There are only so many hours in a day you know. And we've already spent most of them stuck in a classroom. Seriously, time's a wastin'." He was looking between his two friends and the nearby stairwell, making no effort to hide his impatience.

Ulrich gave a relenting shrug. "We may as well. There's no point in us hanging around here if Jeremie's not around."

Yumi then abruptly snapped out of her trance and turned to look at the two of them. "You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up with you in a little bit."

Odd rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. Ulrich simply gave her a perplexed look. "What's up?"

"It's nothing...just something I need to take care of real quick." She gave Ulrich a smile of reassurance. "It'll only be sec, okay? Promise. I'll meet you two outside when I'm done. Wait for me, okay?"

With that, she turned away from the two of them and strode off purposefully down the corridor opposite the nearby stairwell.

"Hey, try not to get lost on the way back," Odd shouted after her. "We're not waiting around for you all day."

Yumi's only reply was to promptly flip him off.

Ulrich gave a snorting laugh. "Jesus, Odd." He rounded on his friend and gave him a rough shove in the direction of the stairwell. "Come on, _times a wastin'_." Odd went easily, grinning with self-satisfaction as he led the way forward. As an afterthought, Ulrich wheeled around on his heels, keeping up his momentum by walked backwards, and called out to Yumi. "Hey, Yumi. We'll wait for you by the main gate, okay?"

She waved her acknowledgement without looking back. At that point she was a girl on a mission. With their agendas set, that the boys descended the stairwell and were out of sight.

Yumi was now left to her own thoughts as she navigated a deliberate course through dormitory hallways, and presently they weren't exactly pleasant. She was doing her best to keep her temper steady. It would do no good to come in hot when she finally caught up to him, not that he didn't deserve it after bailing on them yet again. Of all the people who managed to get under her skin, she would have never thought that he would wind up becoming one of them. It she didn't go off on him this time around, it would be a minor miracle.

He was definitely pushing all the wrong buttons today.

* * *

It was on the rooftop of the Kadic dormitory where a sandy-haired boy sat cross legged with his back against the brick face of the stairwell enclosure, a laptop balanced steadily on his knees. Before him was a panoramic view of the boarding school campus and, beyond that, an expansive vista of the city for miles out. None of it reached his eyes. His attention was fixed instead to his computer screen, the display revealing the animated face of a cute pink-haired girl only a few years younger than himself. She bore distinctively elfish features and simple pink marks tattooed on both her cheeks. She stared back at him with wide, forest-green eyes, eyes that took him in through the screen as if it were merely a pane of glass between them, glowing with overabundant excitement.

"I saw a new bird today." It came out in a sudden rush, like the memory had abruptly surfaced out of the blue and she couldn't believe she hadn't thought to share the news before now. Her voice was bright and filled with bubbly excitement with the revelation, her mouth spread wide in a delighted grin.

"Oh, really?" Jeremie Belpois arched his eyebrows with interest, his own relaxed smile deepening in kind.

"At first I wasn't entirely sure," She continued, "but I followed it until it finally landed on a small bush and I could actually get a good look at it. I crept up on it real slow so I wouldn't scare it away and, oh Jeremie, I got so close I could have touched it. It didn't even try to fly away."

He loved hearing the enthusiasm in her voice whenever she was especially thrilled over something, loved experiencing her excitement through her words and witnessing her delight at being able to share her experience with him. He could listen to Aelita speak endlessly just to hear the sound of her voice, but it was always a special treat whenever he got to see her so completely filled with joy. He watched her through half shuttered eyes as she described to him the bird with such vivid, colorful details he could see it plainly in his own mind. How a girl who had presumably spent her entire existence surrounded by nothing but bleak, barren jets of floating rock hovering above a featureless void had inherited such a rich vocabulary was a mystery to him. It was incredibly calming just listening to her speak. The dull, persistent ache between his shoulders that seemed to always plague him had faded to a distant background noise, and for once his neck didn't seem to be bothering him. The gentle breeze that blew steadily across the rooftop felt good against his skin, as did the warm rays of the afternoon sun. In that moment he felt completely and utterly at peace.

"Hey Jeremie, are you even listening to me?"

"Mmm?" Jeremie's eyes slid lazily open to reveal Aelita giving him a disapproving look. Funny. He didn't even realize he had closed them. He smiled back at her. "Yeah, I'm listening."

Aelita's face softened. "You know, if you'd rather just get some rest instead of talking that's perfectly fine with me. I know how hard you've been working lately. You could certainly use it."

Jeremie gently shook his head. "No, I'm fine. I'm just enjoying being out in the open. It's been a while since I've spent any time outdoors. I think I might be logging a little too much time in front of the computer these days. My body's really been feeling it lately." He stretched his arms above his head at the statement, indulging in the satisfying pops his joints made and the relief it brought.

"Try nearly every hour of the day." Aelita's voice took on a soft tone of admonishment. "Jeremie, you know you don't have to spend every free moment working on Lyoko, right? You can do the things you want to do every once in a while. You now it doesn't bother me."

"Working on Lyoko _is_ what I want to be doing. It's important to me that I don't waste any time getting the materialization program up and running. Once we have you out of there there will be all the time in the world to rest."

Aelita knit her brows together. "You know there's no rush, especially if it means your own needs aren't getting taken care of. And besides, you've done so much for me already. Look at all the wonderful things you've done with Lyoko. It's completely transformed because of you. There is so much to see now that I'll never have enough time to explore it all. And thanks to your Genesis program there's so much life here now I don't feel even the tiniest bit lonely. Honestly, if it takes you a little longer to figure out materialization I can live with that."

At her words Jeremie felt a deep surge of affection for the pink-haired girl before him. It was just like Aelita to always try and put his needs first. "You don't need to worry about me, Aelita. Honest. I'm more than happy to work on the materialization program, knowing it will give you a chance to finally see the outside world for yourself. Besides, it won't be too much longer now before we work out all the bugs in the program. We'll figure it out soon enough. I promise"

"Then you'll take me to see the Northern Lights, right?" Aelita's eyes brightened with the notion, her voice bubbling with the excitement.

Jeremie couldn't help but laugh. It had been her number one request once she finally came to earth ever since he had first described it to her. "Yes, Aelita. I'll make sure the very first thing we do is go and see the Northern Lights."

The look on her face was pure delight.

A moment later there came the sound of the metal door to the stairwell squealing on its hinges, alerting Jeremie to a new presence on the rooftop. His mood quickly shifted as he listened sharply to the sounds of approaching footsteps, a prickling sense of unease creeping into him as he kept his eyes focused on his computer screen. A moment later the footsteps stopped abruptly by his side.

"I thought I'd find you here."

"Hello Yumi." Jeremie smiled up at the tall Japanese girl standing over him. "I had a feeling you'd come track me down."

Yumi didn't return his smile. Instead she wordlessly took a seat next to him, her eyes settling on the horizon ahead of her. For a while she simply sat in silence, not looking at him, her body still and her expression distant, unreadable. Gusts of wind tugged at her dark hair, blowing wisps across her face that she didn't bother to tuck back into place.

"So, are you planning on hiding out up here all day or are you going to come down and actually spend time with your friends for once."

Her tone was perfectly neutral, but Jeremie could easily sense the tension in her, the tight restraint with which she carried herself whenever she felt the need to mask her true feelings from others. He spared a moment to appraise the scenery before him, giving himself time to gather his thoughts. It was an impressive view from this vantage point. From up here you could see all the way into Paris.

"Actually, I was hoping I could just spend some quality time with Aelita. We've been so bogged down with work these past several weeks we haven't had a chance to just relax and enjoy each other's company." Yumi didn't show any outward reaction, but Jeremie could feel a shift in the air between them. "Maybe some other time though," he added, too late, he knew, to diffuse the rising tension bubbling beneath the surface. He cursed himself for his tactlessness.

"You can go with her if you really want to, Jeremie," Aelita's voice piped up from the speakers of his laptop. "I don't mind at all. We'll always have time to talk later."

Yumi turned to face the screen on Jeremie's lap and gave the pink-haired girl a genuine smile. Jeremie only felt the tension inside him winding tighter. He deeply wished Aelita had simply kept to herself. It was hard enough turning Yumi away as it was. He drew in a deep breath through his nose, let it out slowly.

"Look, Yumi. I appreciate you coming to see me, but I'm really not feeling up to it today."

Yumi's features went stony once more, her eyes drifting back to the horizon. "You never feel up to it."

Again that flat, even tone.

The sharp sigh escaped him before he had a chance to suppress it. "Come on Yumi, it's not like that at all. You know how preoccupied I've been lately. Things haven't been going very smoothly with all the bugs I've been having to chase down in the materialization program. I'm just feeling a little burnt out is all. I just need a little time to catch my breath."

"Right."

Jeremie bit down on his irritation. It amazed him how Yumi could work him up without showing the slightest hint of emotion. "Look, I'm sorry, alright? I know you haven't been seeing much of me lately, and I get it. I've just been really, really busy these past few weeks."

"It's been two months, Jer."

Jeremie was caught off guard by this. Had it really been that long since he last hung out with the gang? He quickly shook it off. "Okay, so I've been out of the loop a bit longer than I thought. But it's not like I'm trying to shut you guys out or anything. It just gets hard sometimes, balancing my time between my friends and my work. Listen, I know I've been ignoring you guys and I know I've been doing nothing but making excuses every time you try to invite me out somewhere, and I'm a complete jerk for it. Can't you give me a free pass this time around?"

He gave her a pleading look, silently begging her to let it end there. Yumi's face tightened briefly, then relaxed back to it's stoic facade. Jeremie fully expected her to make some rebuttal, but she simply rose to her feet then.

"Suit yourself."

For the moment she simply stood in place staring out past the city skyline as if in deep reflection. Jeremie watched her out of the corner of his eye, doing his best not to appear overeager to be free of her.

"Hey." Her voice drew his full attention back to her, and he saw she was looking back his way. "We're still on for our study session later, right?"

She didn't bother to hide the expectation in her features.

"You bet."

The smile Jeremie gave her this time was genuine. In this way, at least, he knew he wasn't going to disappoint her. Yumi returned the smile this time around, then she finally turned away from him and began retracing her steps back towards the rooftop entrance. Another squeal of tarnished hinges grinding together and she was gone.

"Why didn't you go with her?" Aelita's glare matched the severity of her tone. "Jeremie, if you're refusing her on my account I'm telling you right now I'm totally fine with it. You don't need to give me all your time. I don't want you avoiding your friends just because of me."

"That's not it at all," Jeremie snapped with a little more force than he had meant. He squeezed his eyes shut and let out a tense breath. Even though Yumi had been entirely calm around him he was still worked up by her presence. He took another deep breath to steady himself. "I'm just not really in the mood to be around anyone else right now."

"You promise it doesn't have anything to do with me?" Aelita pressed, still wearing her frown with sharp disapproval.

"I promise, Aelita. It has absolutely nothing to do with you."

Jeremie couldn't tell from the look on her face whether she believed him or not. Either way she let the issue pass as she shifted the conversation to another topic, and was quickly back to her usual bubbly self. Regardless it didn't make him feel any better about himself. He hated lying to her.

He settled his gaze back on the horizon, all too aware of the dull ache between his shoulders.

* * *

Odd and Ulrich were occupying a bench near the campus gates, idly watching the flow of people making their way in and out of the grounds while they waited for Yumi to catch up with them. Odd was passing the time shamelessly ogling the prettier girls that passed their way, sharing with Ulrich his colorful commentary that was only occasionally flattering and mostly inappropriate. Ulrich was hardly paying attention; he was far less interested in the crowds and couldn't care less about Odd's extensive insights on female anatomy. His mind was firmly stuck elsewhere.

"What's taking her so long? Didn't she say she was only going to be a minute?"

"Jeez, Ulrich. I thought I was impatient." Odd cast a provocative leer in Ulrich's direction. "What, You can't stand being away from your _girlfriend_ for more than a few seconds at a time?"

He gave special emphasis to the word "girlfriend", drawing it out in a lilted taunt like the way one of Ulrich's annoying little cousins might. He hated how much it worked at riling him up.

"Shut up, Odd. That's not how I meant it and you know it."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure that's exactly how you mean it." Odd now turned to face Ulrich fully and gave him a sly look. "After all, don't think I didn't notice you sneaking back into our room last night at almost one in the morning after disappearing with Yumi all afternoon for your private time. Why don't you tell me what you two were doing out so late, huh?"

Ulrich gave Odd a scathing look. "While it's absolutely none of your business, we were just talking. Alright? That's it. Talking."

"Was that before or after you two got each other's clothes off."

Ulrich sputtered noisily, his face going bright red, and he rounded on Odd.

"Jesus, Odd! What the hell is your problem?"

"What's _my_ problem? You're the one who starts acting like he's still five every time I bring up Yumi and sex," Odd shot back. "Why don't you just slap a big red stamp on your forehead that says 'Virgin'. It'd be less obvious."

"Seriously, shut up about that," Ulrich growled. "I wouldn't talk about any of that stuff with you even if it did happen, so just lay off."

"Hey, as your best friend I'm legally entitled to hear all the messy details of your first romp with Yumi, so don't think you're holding out on me, cause I won't allow it."

"We are not having this conversation."

Odd wasn't letting up. He leaned into Ulrich with another sly look.

"So are you going to tell me what you and Yumi were _really_ up to last night?"

"Odd, I'm warning you."

"Come on. I bet you things got at least a little steamy, didn't they?"

"Odd, can it! Nothing like that happened between us, got it? So just drop it already."

Odd straightened again and raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, whatever you say, champ. I'm not judging. What you and Yumi do behind closed doors is your own business. I Just hope you two used protection is all."

Odd barely had time to react before he found himself seized in a tight headlock, feeling just as well as hearing Ulrich's angry growl as he struggled in vain to pull himself free from the larger teen's iron grip.

"Ack, lemme go! Uncle! Uncle!"

"You'd better take that back," Ulrich growled. "Nothing happened between me and Yumi, got it?"

"Okay, okay. I get it," Odd wailed. "You two just talked. Jeez, where's your sense of humor. Seriously, let go. You're messing up my hair."

Satisfied, Ulrich released Odd, who promptly went about combing his fingers through his hair, urgently trying to smooth his meticulously sculpted hairdo back into place.

"Jeez Ulrich, was that really necessary?"

"You think you'd learn by now not to rag on me and Yumi like that." Ulrich said with a satisfied smirk.

"Hey, it's not my fault if you two are the only ones who seem to be in complete denial about your feelings for one another," Odd remarked. "The way you two always act around each other, do you seriously think I'm just not gonna say anything about it?"

"Like you're some great expert on relationships." Ulrich snapped. "We're just taking things at our own pace, okay? It's not a big deal."

"Yeah yeah, You're taking things nice and slow. I get it. Seriously though, what's it gonna take for you to just ask Yumi out properly? Do you really think she's going to say no, cause I'm telling you right now, you've totally lost your mind if you think that."

Odd was staring Ulrich down now, his look having gone perfectly serious. Ulrich just glared right back at him.

"That's not it at all. I'm just waiting for the right time to make my move, okay? Jeez, why is everybody always trying to rush us?"

"Oh come on, Ulrich. You've been waiting to make your move for like, what, three years now? If you're too scared to ask Yumi out then you may as well come out and say it. At least then you would be being honest with yourself."

"Who says I'm scared? Maybe I'm just perfectly fine with the way things are right now. Maybe I don't feel the need to dive into a relationship all at once like _some people_." Ulrich bore into Odd with an accusatory stare. The other boy simply gave a barking laugh in return.

"Now you're definitely lying to yourself."

Ulrich was already opening his mouth to protest further when he was abruptly cut short by the sound of an all too familiar voice shouting at peak volume from somewhere in the distance.

" _Hey! Stern!_ "

Both teens swiveled their heads in unison towards the stretch of pathway leading back in the direction of the school. It wasn't hard to single out one particular boy from the thin crowds with slicked dark hair and over-formal attire that reeked of smug elitism, who was at present marching purposefully towards them. Even from a distance the dark scowl he wore read plainly of someone wielding an unfriendly agenda, which didn't bode well at all for Ulrich considering it was unmistakable who it was he was presently after.

"Jeez, Ulrich! What did you do to piss off the captain of the geek squad? He looks like he's out for blood."

"Hell if I know." Ulrich was already digging through his memory for some incident or other that might account for this impromptu visit from Kadic's second biggest prick. These days Herve Pichon pretty much ignored him and his friends, having gradually lost interest in his rivalry with their group, and he was far more inclined to go out of his way to avoid them altogether than engage them, which was just fine with Ulrich. A few years of maturity hadn't made him any more pleasant to be around. The only time they ever butt heads these days was when they were on cross paths regarding a certain overly attached drama queen.

Ulrich rose to his feet as Herve drew rapidly nearer, recognizing his disadvantaged position on the bench with the threat of confrontation quickly descending, and he squared himself in a posture that was both at ease and ready for action. Odd followed suit and stepped up beside him, at the ready to lend support if need be.

"Well this should be interesting."

There was a half-meter between them when Herve finally came to a full stop before Ulrich, and he drew himself up to his full height, only a hair's breadth shorter than him now. He focused a scalding glare against Ulrich's own cool, wary gaze.

"I demand that you tell me what did you do to Sissi." The fury in his tone was palpable. The color in his face was an angry shade of red that flushed all the way down the sides of his neck.

"Wait, what? What the hell are you even talking about?" Ulrich was genuinely confused. "You must have flipped your lid or something. I haven't so much as talked to Sissi all day."

"Don't bother trying to act stupider than you already are," Herve spat. "I know Sissi went to see you last night? Ever since then she's locked herself in her room and she's refused to come out all day, not even for classes. I know you did something to her, you jerk. Spill it.

At those words Ulrich was hit with a sudden vision of the previous night: Sissi materializing from out of the darkness to confront him, the potent rush of emotions as she spilled out her hidden feelings for him, her choked sobs as she fled from him after he had failed to reciprocate those feelings. She had clearly been really upset by him, but he didn't realize that she had been hurt that much by his rejection. He never suspected Sissi might take his lack of feelings for her so hard. She had always shown herself to be a remarkably strong girl after all. How many times had he callously spurned her romantic advances in the past, only to have her shrug it off and come back with twice the determination, twice the will. But he guessed even the strongest people could be pushed to the breaking point, especially when you struck them right at the heart.

Herve hadn't missed the dramatic shift in Ulrich's expression. "I knew it. You did do something to Sissi. I can see it in your face. Spit it out. What did you do to her? Tell me right now or I'll, or I'll..."

The he balled his trembling hands into fists and he postured himself in what Ulrich assessed to be the most pitiful example of a fighting stance he had ever seen. He glanced questioningly over at Odd, who merely shrugged with a barely concealed smirk, before turning his attention back to Herve. In a smooth motion he seized him by the front of his shirt and dragged him up close, his bird-boned frame yielding little resistance to Ulrich's trained strength. He honed his expression into a deadly glare.

"Look, I'm going to be nice and give you a chance to walk away in one piece, but I want to make one thing perfectly clear. I didn't do anything to Sissi. Whatever is wrong with your precious little princess has nothing to do with me. _Got it?_ Now, you are _really_ starting to get on my nerves so, if you don't mind, you can kindly get out of my face before one of us gets hurt, and I'm pretty sure it's not going to be me."

He shoved Herve away from him then, not hard by any standard, but that didn't stop the featherweight teen from stumbling clumsily onto his backside. Herve quickly overcame his dumbstruck gawp to glare up at him with a blaze of defiance, though there was an unmistakable underpinning of fear decorating the expression. Ulrich simply folded his arms and furrowed his brow in warning. At last, Herve averted his gaze in apparent submission. He picked himself up and brushed the dirt from his slacks before shooting Ulrich another acid glare, though this time with far more restraint.

"You just better watch your back, Ulrich."

With that, he promptly stomped away back the way he came.

"Okay, you mind telling me what _that_ was all about?" Odd was now pinning Ulrich with a demanding look that was all hunger for stories and scandals. Ulrich didn't register the question. He met his friend with a look that was distant and sober.

"Odd, I have to go take care of something. When Yumi gets here let her know something very important came up that I had to deal with and that I'll catch up with you guys later?"

"Wait! Are you kidding me? Now you're running off on me too?" Odd looked less than thrilled at the proposition. "Well that's just fine and dandy. You don't seriously expect me to just sit around here and wait the day away while you two are off running errands. Screw that. If you're taking off, so am I."

"Jesus, Odd! Really?" Ulrich stared down Odd imperiously. Odd stared right back in perfect obstinance. "Fine! I'll shoot Yumi a text then. Seriously, you're just impossible sometimes."

"Hey, why be difficult when you can be impossible." Odd flashed a cheeky grin before turning away from Ulrich with a casual wave and starting off towards the gate. "See you around, Ulrich. Give me a call whenever you decide you're actually ready to hang out."

Ulrich lingered in place well after Odd had passed through the wrought iron gates and disappeared into the suburbia beyond. He was trying his best to collect his thoughts as he struggled to process Herve's disturbing revelation about Sissi. Visions of the previous night were now swarming about in his head, filling him with an ever increasing sense of unease. Finally, he shook his head clear and gathered himself together, and with a quiet resolve he made his way back across the campus in the direction of the dormitories.


	3. Chapter 3

_"Reconciliation"_

Ulrich counted the doors as he made his way down the corridor of the girls' dormitories, guilt plaguing him every step of the way. He kept playing the events of the previous night in his mind over and over, brooding over how he might have done things differently, if he could have said or done anything that might have changed the outcome of that regrettable encounter. He never meant to make Sissi so upset. He had been woefully unprepared to handle the weight of the situation he had been unwillingly thrust into. What could he have possibly said or done that would have spared her the pain he knew he had caused her. He knew that in the end it really didn't matter. Right now she was locked in her room, refusing to come out even for the sake of classes, and he was to blame. It was clear to him was that he needed to make things right with her now, to fix the damage his misguided judgement had caused.

When he found the door he was looking for he stood before it for a long time. In spite of the conviction that had carried him all this way, now that he was at the threshold he felt a rising doubt that rooted him in place. Was this really the right thing to do after all? What guarantee did he have that he wouldn't only make things worse by trying to talk to Sissi now? Hadn't he already made things bad enough as it was?

For a time, conviction and doubt wrestled for dominance as he stared with uncertainty at the door in front of him. In the end, conviction won out. Reluctantly, he raised his hand to the door and gave the surface a few light raps. There was no turning back now.

"Go away!" The shout from within sounded worn and hoarse. The ragged edges of hurt in it were plain to Ulrich's ears, and he winced with a fresh stab of guilt.

"Sissi, its Ulrich. Open up. We need to talk."

"I said _go away_!" The voice rang clearer, more forceful this time, punctuated with an obvious note contempt. The tone carried with it a clear message of finality.

This was going to be harder than he thought.

Ulrich let out a discouraged sigh. He didn't blame Sissi for not wanting to talk to him. He called to her again, louder this time.

"Sissi, please! I really need to talk to you about last night. Come on, don't make me stand out here all day."

Silence followed this time around. As time dragged on, Ulrich began to wonder if he was simply wasting his time, whether it was better for him to just walk away and leave her to sulk in peace. Then he heard the sound of footsteps approaching, the soft click of the lock being turned. He held his breath without even realizing it as the door swung inwards before him, and then he was face to face with Sissi.

It took a moment to remember to start breathing again, another to reign in the look of shock he realized had taken over his features. If he hadn't known whose door he was standing in front of, he might have second guessed himself upon seeing the girl standing before him now. Sissi looked so strikingly different from what he had grown so accustomed to seeing over the years he had known her that he had been momentarily confused, disoriented, like coming face to face with an apparition out of a barely remembered dream. He had completely forgotten what she looked like without her makeup. The natural contours of her face were softer without the artificial highlights and shadows leading the eye. The faint dusting of freckles splashed across her nose was a feature normally hidden beneath a mask of foundation and concealer. Without the carefully sculpted illusion of forced maturity she looked every bit the young girl that she still was, not so very different from the girl he had met and befriended during his first year at Kadic, and Ulrich found himself struck with a heady wave of nostalgia.

Sissi's face was fixed in a cold stare as she watched him with steady, guarded eyes, though their redness, the puffiness beneath them, the flush in her cheeks, still damp with the remnants of shed tears, betrayed the truth of what she was masking from him. He wished he could do more than simply stare dumbly back at her, but his stunned mind seemed to be having trouble working at the moment. Time stretched on uninterrupted as he tried for a coherent thought, failed, tried again. It took more effort than it should have to finally push a question past his lips.

"So...um...can I come in?"

Sissi's reaction was far from encouraging, her expression immediately darkening at the request, and she seemed to regard him now with open resentment, to silently reprove him for the audacity of even asking such a thing. Ulrich fully expected the door to come slamming shut in his face at any second, but she surprised him by stepping back from the doorway instead, opening a clear path for him inside, though she turned her face away from him as she did so, as if it was too much to even look at him, folding her arms tightly across her chest in a clear display of aversion. Though she made no open gesture of invitation, her meaning was obvious enough. Ulrich hesitated only briefly, one last consideration to the idea of turning tail and fleeing while he still had the choice, then he tentatively stepped across the threshold. She closed the door behind them when he was clear and locked it once more. He couldn't help the abrupt spike of anxiety that sent his heart quickening in his chest, feeling like he was suddenly trapped in a lion's den.

Sissi took a seat on her bed and motioned with a brief flick of her eyes for Ulrich to do the same before turning sharply away from him again. He swallowed down his anxiety and sat himself beside her, reciprocating her behavior by averting his own eyes to the posters plastered across the walls, the vanity with its myriad of cosmetic supplies, the heart shaped pillow on the bed beside him with the phrase "I love you" printed across it in large white front, anything but her. For a long moment they sat there in silence. Sissi seemed resigned to waiting for him to begin on his own volition, which was just as well, as Ulrich was having great difficulty figuring out where to start. It had been imperative that he convince her to listen to what it was he had to say, but now that he had her attention he was having amazing difficulty thinking of anything.

"Sissi..."

He said her name, if only to force himself to speak, to break the gnawing silence before he completely lost his nerve. It was enough, it seemed, as the words began to coalesce in his mind, and he continued.

"I know things haven't been very good between us for a long time now, and I know that you don't have any reason to even give me the time of day, let alone listen to me explain myself now, but I need you to know that, well, that I'm sorry...for everything. I really am. I don't blame you at all for not wanting to be around me right now. But you got me all wrong last night. I wasn't trying to say I hated you. I don't hate you, Sissi. I never hated you, ever."

He missed the sidelong glance that was directed his way, the barely perceptible softening of Sissi's icy demeanor. He didn't turn to look at her then, but rather kept his gaze glued to the floor as he continued.

"Look, I get that have no reason to believe anything that I have to say. I've been nothing but horrible to you. I make fun of you every chance I get, and I let my friends get away with doing it too. We never gave you a fair chance, even when you were genuinely trying to be nice to us. You didn't deserve any of that, and I feel ashamed that I was ever a part of that. I was wrong to treat you as badly as I did." It was then that Ulrich turned to face Sissi, hoping she could see the sincerity in his eyes. "But I can assure you that ends now. I really want to try to make things better between us, if you will let me. I just...I just hope you can find it in you to forgive me."

The stony mask Sissi had worn when he had first set eyes on her had by now completely dissolved away, leaving something entirely different in its place. Now, as Ulrich gazed upon her, she seemed more vulnerable than he had ever seen her before, like all her defenses had been stripped away clean leaving only raw, naked emotion in its place, a candid glimpse of everything she had been holding in up to that moment.

"Why should I forgive you." Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper, but still carried to his ears clearly in that quiet space. "You hurt me, Ulrich, more than you could ever imagine. All you ever seem to do is hurt me, over and over. Why should I believe you suddenly care now?"

Ulrich turned fully to face Sissi directly, his expression insistent. "Hey, I do care about you. Honestly. I cared enough to come see you now, didn't I?"

"Only because you felt like you had to." Sissi's eyes hardened again and she stared him down with an accusatory glare. "I know you didn't come here on your own, Ulrich. Who did you run into? Sorya? Claire? Herve? You're only here because you heard poor Sissi was locked in her room crying all day and you felt too guilty to leave it alone. You were never any good at handling insecurity."

The remark stung. Ulrich could think of nothing to say in reply, and his gaze shied back to the floor. Sissi was right. He hadn't come to see her out of his own concern or sympathy. He hadn't even realized she was missing from their classes until someone had blatantly pointed it out to him.

"Why are you even bothering anyway? You already made it perfectly clear you're not interested in me. Look, I get it. You won. I'm out of your life forever. What else is there to say?"

That brought his attention sharply back to her. "I never said I wanted you out of my life."

"Well what do you want, Ulrich? You want me to tell you everything's fine so you can go back to ignoring me with a clear conscience?" Sissi's voice was rising steadily along with the color in her cheeks. "Well, sorry to make things so difficult for you, but it's not. I'm not fine. I'm about as far from fine as you can possibly get, in case you haven't noticed. That's kind of what happens when the person you're in love with tells you they can't even stand to be around you."

"Hey, I never said that!"

"Maybe not last night, but you've said it enough times in the past to make your point loud and clear, so congratulations. The brainless leech finally got the hint that she isn't wanted and is now out of your hair of good. You should be happy."

Ulrich opened his mouth to retaliate once more, hesitated, closed it again. This had to stop. He hadn't come here to get into a fight with Sissi. They did plenty of that already. If he was going to get through to her, he needed to change tactics.

"Sissi, I don't want you out of my life," he repeated with measured calm. "That's never been something that I wanted. Look, last night you asked me how I feel about you, right? How I really feel about you. Well the truth is that, well, that I like you. I really do."

Sissy gave a hollow laugh. "Oh, you like me now, do you? After everything you've said and done to me I'm just supposed to believe that. You're really something, Ulrich. You know, I'm not as stupid as you make me out to be."

"No, really. I like you. A heck of a lot more than most people, in fact. Come on, you were the first real friend I had at Kadic. You were the only person who actually made the effort to talk to me back then. I remember we used to hang out all the time."

"You mean I used to stalk you relentlessly," Sissi retorted. "You never did seem very eager to have me around even then, like you couldn't ever wait to get rid of me, except I could never take the hint. I'm not delusional, Ulrich. I know how I was back then."

"Come on, that's not it at all," Ulrich pressed. "Sure, I never made it easy for you to get close to me, but that doesn't mean that I didn't ever like having you around. Yeah, you were always pretty clingy, and you can bet there were some days I was ready to shove you off a bridge just to get rid of you, but you also made my life a lot more interesting, and most of the time I actually had fun when we were together. I kinda liked how you used to drag me all over the place playing tour guide. I didn't know up from down when I first came to Kadic, and I got to see a lot of neat stuff because of you that I would have never even known existed otherwise. Not to mention you were the only one who took the time out to help me out when I needed it. You were the one who helped me with my French when everyone else just made fun of my accent. You were the one who tried to tutor me in maths after you found out how bad I was at it, even though you really weren't much better at it than I was. I don't even remember anymore how or why we ever started fighting, but you and I _were_ friends before that, and I promise you that that wouldn't have ever been possible if I didn't like you."

Ulrich let the words hang in the air between them, giving Sissi the chance to process everything he had just said. It took some time, but he could see the venom in her eyes gradually retreating.

"You actually mean that, don't you?" She said at last.

"I know I've said a lot of terrible things to you in the past, but I really do think you're pretty cool, I mean, you know, when you're not being totally obnoxious to me and my friends, that is. There's just...there's just a lot to get past to actually get to that point, you know?"

Sissy then cast her eyes away from his with a look of shame. "You mean like me being a total bitch all of the time and always going after you and your friends?"

Ulrich drew himself up defensively. "Hey, I didn't mean it like that."

She smiled humorlessly. "No, it's okay. You wouldn't be the first person to think something like that about me. I get it. I can be a real pain when the mood suits me. I don't get along well with others, especially when they're standing in the way of something I want." At the last line she gave Ulrich a meaningful look. "I don't really blame you for acting the way you do around me. I'd probably do the same thing if I had to deal with me."

Ulrich shook his head insistently. "No, it's not your fault. I was the one always being a jerk."

"Stop, Ulrich. It's okay. We may as well be honest with each other," Sissi said calmly. "I kind of threw lying to myself out the window anyway when I decided to come see you last night. I was just so fed up with making excuses for the way we always wind up attacking one another over absolutely everything. I'm not afraid to admit my faults if it means finally being straight with you and putting an end to all this hostility."

Ulrich bowed his head in sympathy. He had to agree that he too was tired of the endless conflict that always seemed to exist between them. It hadn't been easy on either of them. "Look, maybe we can just start over. We used to get along at one point in time. Can't we just try being friends again?"

Sissi shook her head. "You don't understand. I told you I love you and I meant it. I think I've always had feelings for you, but I've never felt it this strong before now. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't absolutely crazy about you. I don't know if I can go back to things just being casual between us. Honestly, going after you and you friends all the time was always just me trying to cope with my feelings for you. It's stupid, I know, but it's the truth. I'm past that now, I promise, but I don't know how I'm supposed to deal with this anymore. I just think it would hurt too much being around you."

Ulrich gave her a sympathetic look. "Look, I know it's not the way you would want it, but would you really be happier if we just never spoke again, ever?"

Sissi looked away from him then, a look of painful reluctance moving over her features, and at first she remained silent. After a pause, her reply finally came in a soft whisper.

"No."

"Listen, I really want to make this clear." Ulrich's expression turned serious. "I don't love you. I just don't have any feelings for you like that. I need to be totally honest with you. But I do care about you, and I'd honestly rather have you around than not at all. So in spite of all the stupid shit we've put each other through I still would like to try and be friends, if that's okay with you." Sissi finally met his gaze again, saw the seriousness in his eyes, and her features softened.

"I...I think I would like that...a lot."

She smiled then, truly smiled, for the first time since Ulrich had entered that gloomy space. He returned her smile, feeling a wave of relief as the last of the tension he had been holding onto dissolved away. Finally, he had managed to brighten her mood and, more importantly, repair at least some of the damage there had been between them. Maybe now, he thought, their relationship could be different. No more attacking one another whenever the chance arose. No more constantly trying to sabotage each other's lives over a petty rivalry. There could finally be peace between them. He felt like he should mark the occasion somehow. It was then that an idea struck him, a peace offering to solidify their commitment to friendship.

"You know, if you're feeling up to it, we could go get some ice cream, you and me. My treat. What do you say?"

Sissi looked mortified at the suggestion. "Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no! I can't possibly go out looking like this." She gestured towards her unpolished appearance. "I'm an absolute mess."

Ulrich smiled. Now this was more like the Sissi he knew. He took both her hands in his and squeezed them gently as he looked firmly, but kindly into her eyes. "You look fine. Honestly. Come on, just let me do something nice for you for once."

She resisted at first, but under the force of his gaze the tension eventually left her, and with a shy smile she let Ulrich gently guide her through the door.

* * *

Yumi wasn't angry. At least that's what she told herself as she appraised the nearly vacant courtyard, noting the conspicuous absence of two students in particular. She had already seen Ulrich's text message to her. He had spent quite a lot of words in a profuse apology for his absence, swearing that he wasn't blowing her off, insisting he had something come up unexpectedly that needed his immediate attention, not that he could be bothered to explain what it was. Oh, and apparently Odd was a dick.

Still, she wasn't angry. Not at all. Not even a tiny bit. And if she was, it most certainly wouldn't be at Odd or Ulrich for ditching her after they had already agreed to hang out together after classes, though they would certainly have to answer for their transgressions in time. Such offenses as theirs were easy enough to forgive. No, if she was angry, and she most certainly wasn't, it would be for an entirely different reason altogether.

Of course, Yumi now had herself a very real dilemma on her hands. She hadn't expected to find herself alone when she finally made her way to campus gates where Ulrich and Odd should have been patiently waiting for her arrival. It wasn't an especially ideal position to find herself in now, considering the mood she was presently in. Not that she was angry, of course. She immediately resented herself for not having made an effort to expand her circle of friends beyond the present three. It wasn't like she didn't now have ample free time to socialize with her peers, her duties as a full time Lyoko warrior well behind her. It figured. That's what she got for being so complacent. Her father would certainly have something to say to her about that. Now she had way too much time on her hands to think, and thinking was the last thing she needed to be doing right now.

Because she would just wind up thinking about him. And every time she did that, all she saw was her hands around his throat.

She really wanted to punch something. It was childish, she knew, but somehow, every time she found herself in these kinds of moods, her mind always seemed to lean towards violence. She didn't miss the irony of it all. At times like these she would normally seek out Jeremie for solace. He always knew how to make her feel better, always knew exactly what to say to her to clear her scrambled thoughts and sooth her crazy temper. Now he was the one making her crazy, and she had no one else to turn to to help her sort out the tangled mess in her head. It was a bitter realization that there was nobody in her life that she trusted with her feelings quite as much as she trusted him. Jeremie wasn't just a friend. He was her close comrade and confidante. He was level-headed, reliable, the one grounding force in the chaos of her life, her calm in the storm. More importantly, he knew her, sometimes better than she knew herself. Now he was closing himself off from everyone around him, choosing isolation over companionship, shunning everyone for the sake of sitting endlessly in front of a computer screen, consumed in a fantasy the rest of them no longer believed in. It hurt to see him so willing to shut everyone else out of his life, to shut her out. She felt like she was losing her best friend.

Still, Jeremie hadn't pushed her out completely, not yet anyhow. It had taken some manipulation on her part, but she did manage to get him to agree to help her study this evening, not that she needed it, but he didn't need to know that. It did bring her some comfort at least. If she was in need of him, he was still willing to reach out to her. It said a lot about his character, that his loyalty ran deeper than his obsession, even if that loyalty did require a little bit of coaxing to bring to the surface every once in a while. She would latch onto that for now, use it as an anchor to keep him from drifting out of her orbit for good before she had a chance to figure out how to get through to him.

For now, though, she just needed a break from her emotions. Unfortunately, with Ulrich and Odd both presently AWOL, she was stuck all by herself for the next few hours. That was another bit of irony. She had spent the better part of her childhood without friends, a social outcast. Solitude was something she was intimately familiar with, and she was well versed in in the art of finding ways to occupy herself in a world where nobody else would even give her the time of day. Being in the company of such a close knit group of friends for so many years must have permanently damaged something within her. Being alone had never bothered very much in the past. It certainly bothered her now. She desperately needed some kind of distraction or she was sure she would lose her mind.

She considered her options then. Go home and bury herself in school work until it was time to go visit Jeremie, which hardly sounded appealing, or go out into the city and do something productive with her time. She decided on the latter, quickly setting a goal in her mind of visiting some nearby shops and picking up snacks to share with Jeremie during their study session. She would make sure to get him something he really liked, something that would remind him of the value of his friends here in the real world. She would make sure he felt at least a little bit guilty for his neglect of her. She grinned at the thought. Something about turning a simple act of kindness into a form of revenge against Jeremie appealed to her very much. It was all the motivation she needed to set her on her way, and she made her leave of the school campus, already playing with different scenarios in her head.

* * *

Ulrich and Sissi had long since finished their ice cream, and they spent their time afterwards leisurely strolling about the neighborhood, retracing the well worn routes of their past in fond reminiscience, filling the time with conversations about anything and everything that came to mind. It surprised Ulrich how easy it was for the two of them to fall into a comfortable rhythm. It was more than just an absence of their usual animosity, rather it was an unlikely camaraderie that had emerged between them. The whole while, Ulrich was caught up in the almost surreal quality of it all. It wasn't just the fact that he and Sissi were actually being nice to one another for a change, which was a rarity on the verge of being mythos. In the blink of an eye his view of her had been fundamentally transformed, changed from the shallow caricature of an over-entitled prima donna to a girl whose inner layers held surprising complexities that only seemed to draw him in the more he uncovered. It was surprising, too, the intriguing depth of her character now that he had been given a chance to probe beneath the surface. She still possessed the same flamboyant habits, the same stormy temperament, the same glaring flaws, was still in every way the same girl he had always known, but it was like looking at her through a different filter, a lens of polished clarity that allowed him to see details that were, before now, completely invisible to him.

Their walk through the city had consisted mostly of them talking, reminiscing about the past, pondering over the future, sharing their personal philosophies, each contribution from one compelling more to be shared by the other, forging a comfortable familiarity between them. He had allowed her to lead the way for the most part, content that she was no longer cooped up in her room, isolated and miserable the way she had been for most of the day. Presently they came to a small park that the two of them were well acquainted with, and they took up a bench overlooking a clear, man made pond, still engrossed in their musings as they idly gazed out among the scenery before them.

As time passed the pair gradually fell into a mutual silence, embracing the calm and stillness of the wilderness setting around them. Here in this oasis of greenery the sounds of distant traffic intermixed with the sparse melody of nearby bird calls and the soft rustle of the wind, and Ulrich felt remarkably at peace as he stared out over the waters of the pond, watching the surface gently ripple with the light breezes that blew past. Among his wandering thoughts was the girl sitting beside him now, the girl transformed. He marveled at how easy Sissi was to be around, how simple it was for them to get along when all their baggage had been put behind them. He liked this, he realized, the complete absence of tension or awkwardness, just two people enjoying a peaceful moment in perfect harmony.

Who would have thought, of all people, he would find this with her?

The thought brought a smile to his lips, and he found himself glancing her way with intense fondness, taking her in with new eyes. She was gazing out across the waters of the pond with a look of pleasant distraction, a placid smile decorating her features. She didn't seem to notice his attention, didn't register his eyes wandering over her, studying her features with keen interest. He absently traced over the lines of her face, noting the fine details that he never really took the time to appreciate before, the soft curve of her lips, the pleasant shape of her nose, mapping out the topography with an emerging appreciation for how attractively everything came together. He had to wonder why she even bothered with so much makeup to try and make herself more appealing, considering what she had to work with was more than adequate. He might try his hand at convincing her to go without it more often.

He hadn't realized he had been staring until Sissi eyes caught his own, a stray glance at first, then their gazes were aligned, and in the brief few seconds of contact that followed her brows knitted and she narrowed her eyes on him with a penetrating look that set him on edge. He wondered, with growing concern, whether he had just crossed a line.

"Whatever you're thinking better be incredibly flattering or I just might have to reconsider this whole friendship arrangement of ours."

She held the severe expression a moment longer, then her lips twitched into an impish smile. Just like that, the tension dissolved away, and Ulrich found himself smirking back at her with a mixture of amusement and relief. "I take it that means you're warming up to the idea of us being friends, then."

Sissi gave a noncommittal shrug, and her eyes wandered back to the scenery ahead of her. "Maybe. We haven't had a blowout yet, so there's that at least. If we manage to keep it up there might be hope for us after all."

Ulrich could sense something else unspoken in her statement. "You aren't sure this will work out, are you?"

Her expression tensed, the last traces of her smile vanishing into a thin line, and a subtle crease etched itself across her brow. Ulrich watched the process of thoughts being considered, words being chosen. It was a time before Sissi spoke again.

"You know, I thought it would be harder being around you, knowing we can't be anything more than friends, but it's not. It's actually been pretty nice just being able to spend time with someone I like without there being any pressure or hidden motives behind it. I really like this a lot."

Ulrich wore his confusion plainly. "Maybe it's just me, but I'm having trouble seeing the problem here. It sounds like things are working out better than you expected."

"For now." Sissi turned her gaze back on Ulrich, a vaguely accusatory look in her eyes. "But what's to stop things from going back to the way they were in another couple of days."

The resentment hit him like a shock, and he stiffened sharply. "You really think after everything I said earlier I'm just going to go back to making fun of you again?"

Sissi's look immediately turned apologetic and she shook her head fervently. "No. I'm sorry, Ulrich. That's not what I meant at all. I know you wouldn't do that. It's just that…" She struggled briefly for words, her eyes searching without seeing."I don't get nice things. Sometimes I get nice looking things, but they never work out in the end, not for me. It just seems too good to last."

The look she gave him pleaded for understanding. Ulrich's anger cooled. He felt like he did understand what she was trying to say. He couldn't exactly promise her things would work out between them, so why even risk it if she might only wind up getting hurt in the end? In the end, all they had before them was this moment and an uncertain future. Everything that came next would be uncharted territory for both of them, a sea of unknowns hiding both good and bad possibilities beneath its cloudy surface. But he was certain of one thing. He was willing to try for the sake of something better. He had ignored so many other opportunities to make amends with Sissi. He wasn't going to do the same with this one.

"Do you trust me?"

Sissi looked startled by the question, then her eyes were searching again, only this time they were fixed squarely on him, peering into him with careful attention, as if she were unraveling the winding thread of all their shared history and measuring him by it. A flurry of emotions ghosted across her face, her features hardening and softening in turns until they finally settled into a look of gentle resolve.

"I trust you."

"Then trust me when I say I want this to work. I like this arrangement. It sure is a heck of a lot better than where we were before, and believe me, I'm more than happy to leave all that mess behind me. You don't have to worry about me trying to sabotage things. But you're going to have to be on board too, you know. I can't exactly make this happen all on my own."

Her gaze wandered in a brief spell of deep thought, then found him again. "Can I be honest with you?"

He nodded solemnly.

She drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly. "This scares me."

"I figured."

"But I don't want that to stop me from trying. I'm willing to give this a shot if you are."

"Good."

Now Sissi was studying him with soft eyes, no longer the penetrating gaze meant to peer into the unseen, but a look that took in the whole of the boy in front of her. "Doesn't this scare you too?"

"No." There was no hesitation in his response.

"How come?"

Ulrich smiled. "Because I trust you too."

It was all that needed to be said, and he meant that as much as he had ever meant anything.

Sissi only continued to stare at him, to study him with even finer scrutiny, but what she might have been thinking was a complete mystery to Ulrich. As he watched her he found his attention drawn to the dusty copper-green color of her eyes, lit up into kaleidoscopic hues by the angle of the afternoon sun and the precise tilt of her head as she looked at him, punctuated by the shock of rust colored corona ringing her pupils. It made for a captivating effect. The more more he looked, the more depth he seemed to discover in them. He found himself making the comparison to the smooth, even texture of Yumi's earthy brown hues, and with some deliberation he couldn't seem to decide which one he favored more. Then he realized what he was doing, and he snapped his eyes away from hers with sudden embarrassment, feeling his pulse leap in his veins with uncomfortable awareness.

"Hey, Are you alright?" Sissi's probing tone made it clear his reaction had not been the least bit subtle. Now he found that couldn't meet her eyes, the impulse repeatedly met with a sharp twinge of paralyzing uneasiness. He could feel the heat creeping up his neck and prayed it wouldn't show up on his face. What the heck was going on with him all of a sudden?

"Yeah, I'm fine." There was an awkward croak in his response. Ulrich resisted the urge to shake his head clear. He was feeling hot in more than just his face now. Finally, he stood up from the bench, feeling suddenly restless and agitated. He needed to start moving again. "You know, we should probably start making our way back if we want to catch dinner before the lines."

Sissi stood up beside him and stepped around him into his line of sight. "Are you sure you're alright? You're acting strange all of a sudden." She wore a curious frown as she held his gaze, but there was no agitation in the expression that he could detect. Ulrich willed his eyes to keep steady, to not leap away from hers like they clearly wanted to. He wished his heart would settle down already.

"I'm fine Sissi. Really. The thing is that, well..." his mind scrambled for a brief moment before finally latching onto something reasonable, "it's just that I kind of left my friends hanging when I came to see you earlier today. We were supposed to get together after classes. They probably think I ditched them at this point."

"Oh." Sissi now looked very self-conscious, and she turned her gaze away with a look of remorse. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take up your whole day. You were probably spending all this time with me just to make me feel better. You can leave if you want."

"No! that's not it at all," Ulrich immediately forgot his discomfort as he tried to recover from his unintended slip up. "This was fun. I liked hanging out with you. It's refreshing, you know, getting to see the real Sissi for a change."

"Do you think...do you think that maybe we could do this again sometime? You know, spend time out together?" Sissi met Ulrich's gaze again, her cheeks rosy and her eyes expectant.

Ulrich gave her a deadpan stare in reply. "Um, duh. Of course we're doing this again. Or did you already forget we're supposed to be friends now? Besides, you've been leading the way pretty much the whole time today. Next time it's my turn to pick out where we go, and I already have a few places in mind so you better be ready for an adventure cause I like to keep a fast pace."

"Oh?" Now Sissi's expression was deeply curious, and she leaned in expectantly, giving him a winning smile. "And are you going to let me in on what any of these places might be?"

Ulrich was having none of it.

"No way. You're just gonna have to wait to find out when the time comes, missy."

He held his steely gaze against her sullen pout and adorable puppy dog eyes, and when she saw that wasn't working she folded her arms with a harrumph and tossed her head to the side in her best I-dont-care attitude.

"Fine, be that way."

"I will, and you'll like it."

He enjoyed the effect of her carefully crafted scowl crumbling away into a humorous smile, the way her eyes lit up with her suppressed laughter. He let his own mask fall away to reveal the grin he had been holding back. "So, shall we be on our way?"

Sissi covered her smile with her hand and nodded, shoulders still shaking gently. Ulrich nodded his head towards the park entrance, and together they started off on their way back to the boarding school.


	4. Chapter 4

_"Obsessions"_

Yumi knocked on the door to Jeremie's dorm with her free hand, the other presently occupied with a pair of loaded shopping bags, her bounty from her earlier excursion into town. She couldn't help the small knot of anxiety that twisted in the pit of her stomach. She couldn't really be sure at how this was all going to turn out.

"It's open."

When she opened the door she immediately frowned. Jeremie was sitting at his desk, leaning back idly in his chair with his hands loosely folded in his lap as he stared intently at the indulgently large computer monitor that took up most of the space on the desktop before him. There was a collage of numerous smaller screens covering all available space on the display, overlapping one another haphazardly in competition for visibility. All of them overflowed with seemingly endless lines of computer code.

"Really Jeremie?" Yumi barked in annoyance. "Like you haven't spent enough time in front of a computer today already?"

"I'm stuck," came Jeremie's simply reply.

"You're always stuck," she shot back as she made her way into the room and deposited one of her two bags onto Jeremie's bed. "When are you ever not stuck?"

"It's just not coming to together," Jeremie continued, seeming to miss Yumi's statement completely. "There doesn't seem to be any good way to translate Aelita's source code into a viable genetic pattern. I've run it through a million different algorithms, run countless hours of simulations, and it always comes back as garbage."

Yumi marched over to Jeremie's side and bent over him so she could look directly into his eyes. "Come on Jer. Give it a rest. You promised to help me study for Chemistry." She fixed him with a demanding look, even as he continued to scour the screen before him in apparent oblivion. He then seemed to snap out of his trance, and he finally turned to look at her, his face turning sheepish and apologetic.

"Yeah. I did, didn't I? Sorry Yumi. You know how distracted I get when I'm working." He smiled then, a certain lopsided grin of penance he usually reserved for moments like this, and Yumi was immediately placated.

"By the way, this is for you." She unceremoniously dumped the second bag onto Jeremie's lap and he had to quickly grab it with both hands to keep it from toppling over onto the floor. She shot him a self-satisfied smile as she waited for him to examine her gift. Jeremie stared at the bag in surprise for a second before parting the edges to peer at its contents. He then shot her an accusing look.

"Seriously, Yumi?"

Yumi's smile faltered. "What, Did I get something wrong?" She leaned forward to get a better look at the contents of the bag. She was sure it was the correct one she had given him just now.

Jeremie then reached into the bag and pulled out a small light-blue pastry box that bore the words "Marcella Lefèvre" printed in elegant calligraphy on its lid. He raised it up high as if to put it on display and gave Yumi an accusing look, one eyebrow raised high for effect. A sly grin then broke out over his face. "You only ever go out of your way like this when you're trying to make me feel guilty about something."

Yumi wasn't prepared to be caught so early in her ploy. It wasn't as if she had planned on going out of her way that afternoon, but she had had plenty of time to kill, and she knew she wanted to get Jeremie something he would really like, something that would make her point to him in the end loud and clear. It had been all too obvious after she had given it some thought. After all, hadn't she heard Jeremie rave about that shop countless times in the past?

Now she was drawing herself up defensively, her face going warm with embarrassment. "Hey! That's…that's not fair." She might have tried to deny the accusation outright, but that would have been useless with Jeremie. He simply knew her too well, and he would only use her attempt at denial to jab at her further. So instead she folded her arms across her chest and turned her face away with scowl. "You really suck, you know that?"

It was then that Jeremie stood up from his chair, and he deposited both the bag and the box on his desk and moved towards her, closing the distance between them until he was standing right in front of her. At his full height he was only slightly taller than Yumi, but it was enough that her eyes had to flit upwards in order to meet his. His easy smile was disarming as he looked her over affectionately, and Yumi felt her pulse rise unexpectedly.

"I'll take that as a compliment. So are you ready to brush up on some Chemistry? I doubt you pestered me into this just for an excuse to hang out with me."

Yumi turned her gaze away in a sudden fit of self-consciousness. She hoped to god he was only joking.

Over the next few minutes the pair were gathering up the materials they would need to begin their study session together. Soon they were both on the floor sitting across from one another in the middle of the room, their laps occupied with identical chemistry manuals and the space between them littered with an assortment of snacks and beverages freshly unpacked from Yumi's two shopping bags. For the moment Jeremie seemed unusually preoccupied with his own textbook, carefully turning each page under the pretense of navigating to a section Yumi had pointed out to him earlier. Her book had been sitting open on that very page for a full minute now.

"So...how are the others doing?" Jeremie paused in his page flipping and flicked his eyes up in her direction, looking vaguely uncomfortable.

"If you're so interested, you should go ask them yourself." Yumi hadn't meant for that to come out so confrontational. She was still simmering from their brief talk on the rooftop. She mentally checked herself.

Jeremie's discomfort was now quite obvious. To his credit, his eyes never left hers. "Yeah, about that. Again, I'm really sorry about being so distant lately. I know it's been bothering you a lot."

"It's fine," Yumi said flatly, shifting her gaze to a random spot on the floor. She didn't know why she said it. It most certainly wasn't fine, but she didn't want to start that kind of conversation with Jeremie right now.

Jeremie absently rubbed the back of his neck. "I've actually been thinking about easing up a little bit...on my work, that is. I know it's been eating up all my time and my back hasn't exactly been loving me lately. And I know it's been putting a big strain on things." By "things" Yumi knew he was referring to his friendship with Odd and Ulrich, but that he was also singling out her as well. He gave her a meaningful look. "I wouldn't be opposed to us doing something together some time soon. It be a good excuse to get me out in the open."

Yumi wasn't sure if by "us" he meant the two of them specifically or with the whole gang together. For some reason she found herself greatly favoring the former assumption to the latter. Her lips tugged into a smile. "That would be nice."

Jeremie grinned. "So are you going to tell me why I now have a boxful of the best pastries in France?" He patted the little blue box sitting next to him for emphasis.

Yumi's cheeks warmed. She suddenly found she really didn't want to bring up the thinking behind that extravagant purchase. A lot of it wasn't exactly kind. She shied away from looking at him directly. "I can do something nice for my friend every once and a while, can't I?"

"Riiight." Jeremie was eyeballing her with tremendous skepticism, making a show of it. Yumi felt the overwhelming urge to shove him. Hard. She resisted.

"Fine! Next time I'll just buy you cheap convenience store pastries instead. How does that sound?"

Jeremie's face gave way to a look of horror. "Jeez, If I ever get convenience store pastries from you then I'll know I must have really screwed up. Then I'd probably have to flee the country for my own safety."

Yumi scrunched her face at him. "If it comes to that, you'll never see it coming. Trust me."

"That's why I keep a charter plane gassed and ready at all times. You can never be sure when the wrath of Yumi will strike." The next instant a bag of chips was soaring past Jeremie's head. He look from the edible projectile back to her and made a sweeping gesture towards the bag. "See what I mean?"

It was refreshing, just hanging out with Jeremie, chatting and joking and simply enjoying his company. The earlier tension had eased dramatically and she was now catching him up on the more interesting events he had missed out on during his prolonged absence. Then there came the point where Jeremie had inevitably brought up one very familiar topic.

"So how are things going between you and Ulrich? Have the two of you finally made it past playground crushes yet, or are you guys still dancing around one another like you think the world will suddenly end otherwise?" Jeremie glanced up from his book to give Yumi a meaningful look.

Yumi was caught off guard by the question. Her mind was suddenly playing through the events of the previous evening, the time she had spent with Ulrich wandering the city, the two of them talking endlessly. She remembered how deliberately they had kept a certain distance between them the whole time, as if their proximity were something dangerous, or an unspoken taboo between them. It hadn't been until they had returned to the school campus after dark and found themselves on an isolated bench in the park did they actually find the courage to let themselves get closer, as if the complete solitude meant they could share intimacy without having to be made accountable to it. Still, it hadn't been enough to break through the resistance that seemed to constantly be holding the two of them back.

"It's complicated."

"Care to talk about it?" Jeremie set his book down on the floor, still open, beside him, and looked at her directly, already perfectly attentive.

Yumi released a heavy sigh, her body slouching forward with the release of breath as if she were deflating. She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking, considering. Then the words just started coming out of her on their own.

"I don't know what's going on with me and Ulrich." She paused briefly, gathering her jumbled thoughts, piecing the meaning of her experiences together into something that would sound sufficiently coherent. "I know we should have hit it off by now, but I really can't explain why we haven't. I mean, he knows exactly how I feel about him and I know how he feels about me. We love spending time together. Honestly, it's like we can't get enough of each other. You think that it would all just come together naturally from there, but...I don't know. It's like there's some invisible wall between us, you know? It's hard to explain it, but every time we're together I can always feel him hesitating. Sometimes when I look into his eyes, it's like I can see a fire in them, like at any moment he's just going to throw himself at me in a fit of wild passion, only it never happens. And it's not just him either. You don't know how many times I've wanted kiss him, _really_ kiss him, but then something always stops me and I'll only just end up giving him a friendly peck on the cheek or something stupid like that. It's like...like something's stopping me from going that extra mile, something...but I don't know what." Yumi returned her gaze to Jeremie then with a somber expression. "Jeremie, do you think it's enough to love someone? I mean, I do love Ulrich. I would do anything for him. I would even die for him if it ever came to that, and I know he would do the same for me, but.. is that really enough?"

Jeremie's face was gentle, but serious as he met Yumi's gaze evenly. "Yumi, you don't really expect things to just fall into place by themselves, do you? You're casting doubt on something you've never even really taken the initiative to pursue. Look, I'll tell you what your problem is. Both you and Ulrich paralyzed by the thought of making a real commitment to the other, like you think you'll just mess everything up and it will all fall apart before your eyes if you ever try to take things even a tiny bit further than they are now. Think about it. You're hesitating because you're hoping Ulrich will make the first move and therefore save you from having to take the plunge yourself. Then all you would have to do is accept. That's easy. You already know that you want him more than anything. And likewise Ulrich's holding back for the same exact reason. The obvious problem is that you two are so busy waiting for the other to make the first move that nobody is moving at all, so how can either of you expect to ever get any farther than you've already gotten?

"Here's how I see it. Someone is going to have to take the first step sooner or later, and if Ulrich won't do it then it's up to you to take control. If you really care about him on that kind of level than you need to show him just how you really feel. Come up with something romantic and then lay it on him thick. Something like, I don't know..." Jeremie paused and thought for a moment. "There's that school dance coming up in three weeks, right? Music, atmosphere, you and Ulrich linked together on the dance floor, only mere inches between you. You get the idea. My only advice, however, is that if you do decide to go through with it you need to commit to it all the way. No backing down at the last second. You can't let fear and doubt get in the way of what is obviously a match made in heaven."

Yumi could only smile as she looked fondly at Jeremie. This is what she needed, that level-headed sensibility that could only come from her closest friend. "You're right. I can't let a little fear cause me to doubt my relationship with Ulrich. I need to show him how I really feel about him. You know Jeremie, you aren't so bad at giving relationships advice."

"Glad I could be of service. Now why don't we actually get started on that Chemistry." Jeremie retrieved the chemistry manual from the floor next to him and resumed thumbing through the pages, this time with actual purpose. After a few moments of silence Yumi spoke up again.

"Speaking of dances, you're going to actually show up to this next one, right?"

Now it was Jeremie's turn to be caught off guard.

"Actually, no. I wasn't even really considering it." Jeremie's expression was now very guarded and he seemed to have trouble looking at Yumi directly.

"I think you should go." Yumi insisted. "It'll be fun and you said you needed an excuse to get out anyway."

"I don't think so," Jeremie said flatly. "I'm really not that interested in going anyhow. Besides, it's time better spent working on debugging the materialization program."

And all at once Yumi felt all her anger from before returning to her with full force. Her face pulled into a deep scowl and she glared hotly at Jeremie.

"Seriously, Jeremie. What is with you always obsessing over the materialization program? That's all you can ever seem to think about anymore. You know, I worry about you. You don't get enough sleep. I never see you eat. The rest of us don't even see you at all anymore. Don't get me wrong. I understand your feelings for Aelita, honestly I do. I mean, we all love her and nothing would make us happier than to finally see her in our world, but don't you think you're taking this too far? What about your friends? What about your own life?"

The shock in Jeremie's face quickly faded, and his expression hardened as he looked up at Yumi with an intensity in his eyes. "Yumi, You already know how important this is to me. You of all people should understand why I can't rest until I've found a way to materialize Aelita."

"Actually, I don't understand," Yumi snapped back, her volume rising. "Perhaps you could explain to me why it is so important to you that you have to give up everything else in your life."

At first Jeremie locked eyes with her, matching her fiery glare with one of his own. Then his gaze dropped to the floor as the fire died out of his own eyes and his face became stony. When he spoke his voice was cold and distant. "You already know how much Aelita means to me. And you already know just how frustrating it's been for me that I haven't been able to bring her into our world even after all this time. Even after we had finally found a way to subdue XANA without having to completely shut down the supercomputer and Lyoko, even with all the data I've managed to collect from Lyoko's core, and all the knowledge I've gained studying the code that runs the supercomputer, she's still locked away in there. She was the one reason we kept the supercomputer going in the first place, the whole reason we allowed ourselves to endure all those endless attacks and risked our necks week after week. It just isn't right, Yumi. You can't just expect me to sit back and accept something like that."

"Jeremie, there's no guarantee that you'll ever succeed at bringing Aelita into our world," Yumi said sternly. "You've spent the better part of the past three years trying to materialize her without success."

"If there's even the slightest chance I can bring her here, I have to find it," Jeremie declared firmly, giving her a penetrating look. "You know I can't just give up, not when I've come so close."

"Will you stop it already? You're no closer to finding the solution than you ever were." Yumi was shouting now, her anger finally spilling over. "Why the hell can't you get that through your head? You keep on saying you're so close over and over, but you're not. You never were. I'm sick of it. What if you never end up finding a way to materialize Aelita? What then?"

Jeremie slid his gaze back to floor, his eyes going cold again. He hands were visibly trembling now, balled up into white-knuckled fists in his lap, but the stony mask persisted. "I know I can find a way to bring her here," he said softly. "It may still take a while longer to figure it out, but I know I can do it if I just keep trying."

"And how long do you plan to keep trying?" Yumi shouted back. "Ten years? Twenty? Fifty? You're really willing to gamble your entire life away on what may probably be an impossible fantasy? You're a good looking guy, Jeremie. You could have your pick of any girl in school. There's a chance you could find someone you really like, maybe even somebody who you could spend the rest of your life with, start a family with, have a real future with. Are you really going to throw all that away just for some pretty face on a computer screen?"

Yumi was surprised to find herself breathless, her heart racing in her chest and her cheeks hot and flushed. She took a deep breath then, calming herself, reigning in the anger that had momentarily taken hold of her. When she continued, her voice was softer, gentler.

"As tangible as Aelita may feel to us, as real as she may seem, she is only just a computer program, and she's going to _stay_ a computer program whether you like it or not. You need to pursue something that's _real_ Jeremie. You need to get away from that fucking computer and out into the real world with real people, like your friends. Does any of this even make any sense to you?"

Jeremie just stared at the floor in silence, his hands still trembling faintly. Yumi couldn't tell by his expression whether he was angry at her or on the verge of breaking down into tears. She suddenly found herself feeling terrible for having shouted at him. She needed to say something comforting, something to let him know that she really did care about him and was there for him.

"Jeremie, out of all my friends you were always the one I could come too when I had problems. I've shared things with you that I would never share with anybody else, not even Ulrich, and you've always been able to give me good advice when I needed it. Well now it's my turn to give you some advice. You are an amazing person with so many wonderful talents and I don't want to see them go to waste. There's a whole side of you that no one gets to see because you're always cooped up behind closed doors, working your life away on that stupid materialization program. Aelita will always be a friend, but she will _never_ be able to become what you want her to be. You need to let her go. You need to move on to other things, better things. It will be incredibly hard to do, believe me, I understand that, but I can assure you that you will be much better off for it, and much happier too."

Yumi's words had finally been exhausted, and she fell silent. She was acutely aware of the electric tingling in her fingertips, her heart still thudding in her chest, the heat radiating off her skin. The silence stretched on unchallenged as Jeremie seemed lost in a quiet internal struggle. He didn't look up at her or, even relax his posture, though his hands had thankfully stopped trembling and she could see the color returning to his bleached knuckles. Yumi felt increasingly self-conscious in the heavy silence. She mentally kicked herself for losing control like she did. Things had been going so well before now, and then she had to go and screw it all up by losing her temper, probably killing any chance of ever getting Jeremie to hang out with her again in the future. When she could stand it no longer she finally spoke.

"Look, I'm sorry I said anything. I guess I only managed to spoil the mood here, haven't I? Let's just forget about this whole study thing. I'll just take my stuff and-"

"No!" Yumi jumped at the forcefulness of Jeremie's voice. He was looking up at her now, his expression insistent. "No, it's alright," he continued, more softly this time. "Stay. I'm okay, really. I think…I think I really needed to hear that. It was just hard to take."

With that, Jeremie smiled with gentle reassurance, though he couldn't quite succeed at masking the deep sadness in his eyes. Yumi felt a sudden twinge of pain in her chest. He was doing that for her benefit. Somehow it made her feel all worse about herself. "I'm sorry I yelled at you." she said softly. "I really didn't mean to make you so upset."

"I'm fine, Yumi," Jeremie said insistently. "I can take a little criticism you know." His face softened then and Yumi caught a glimpse of something she couldn't quite place, something raw and unfiltered. "Besides, I'm glad you said what you did. It means a lot to me that you care so much about my well-being that you're willing to push me like that. Only a true friend would risk hurting someone she cared about to set him straight, even if he really didn't want to hear it. I feel very lucky. I've done nothing to deserve you sticking by me like you do. I've only been slowly pushing you and everyone else in my life away. But you've always been there for me regardless."

Yumi felt another wave of anger hit her. "Stop it. You do so much and you don't even realize it. Why do you even think I said all those things." She caught herself before she could get worked up again. "You're a good friend, Jeremie. You're my best friend. I just want you to be happy."

The silence that descended this time around was one that felt far more awkward. Now neither Yumi nor Jeremie seemed to be quite able to look at the other, their eyes casting about the room, occasionally meeting for brief moments before darting away from one another yet again. In their evasive wandering, Jeremie's eyes settled on the textbook still open on his lap, and a short chuckle escaped his lips. He then looked up at Yumi and grinned sheepishly.

"I guess we should _really_ get started on that Chemistry, shouldn't we?"

Yumi's eyes dropped her own textbook, then moved to look at Jeremie's. She immediately noticed he still hadn't managed to reach the page she had instructed him to find earlier. Suddenly, she was dissolving into an uncontrollable laughing fit.

"What?" Jeremie stared at her in confusion and a small degree of concern. Yumi just continued giggling stupidly.

"I love you, Jer," she gasped through spurts of laughter.

Jeremie smiled at her then, perfectly undeterred by his friend's clear descent into madness.

"I love you too, Yumi."


	5. Chapter 5

_"Revelations"_

Jeremie lay sprawled out on top of the covers of his bed, his eyes closed, but unable to find the comfort of sleep. It was late, well past midnight by his guess, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't silence his racing thoughts enough to allow himself to finally drift into peaceful slumber.

Ever since enduring Yumi's heated reprimand towards his single-minded focus on Aelita's materialization, he had found himself plagued with gnawing doubt. In all the years of his work he had clung to the absolute certainty that he would someday materialize Aelita into this world, but Yumi's words had managed to deal a severe blow to his normally iron conviction. Had it been anyone else who had said those things to him, he likely would have shut them out entirely (and probably gone off on them too for good measure), but he and Yumi were close. As long as he had known her she had always looked out for him, and he trusted nobody more than he trusted her.

It had certainly been a tough pill to swallow. Yumi's words still echoed clearly in his mind.

 _Aelita will always be a friend, but she will never be able to become what you want her to be._

He wondered if she was right. Even after three years of dedicated work he was still no closer to bringing Aelita into the flesh. What if he never found a way to materialize her? What if he really was only chasing an insane fantasy? He had had so many doubts throughout the years of his labor, so many moments where he could have just given up and turned his back on everything he believed in, but he always overcame them with an even stronger resolve than before. After all, had he not managed to master the intricate software controlling the supercomputer and Lyoko, a digital language so sophisticated that even most programmers decades ahead of him would have trouble comprehending it? With the knowledge he had gained over his years of research he had now obtained practically god-like control over the virtual world of Lyoko. He had taught himself how to manipulate the very fabric of the virtual landscape, perfected the trick of mimicking living creatures on Lyoko by repurposing the AI templates that XANA had once used in to generate its virtual monsters. With everything he had accomplished by this point, with all the valuable discoveries he had made in his years of tireless research, one would think it should be no problem for him to create a simple materialization program.

But this wasn't just one of those fleeting moments of doubt brought about from the usual stress and frustration that came from long hours of deciphering volumes of sophisticated computer code. This wasn't the kind of doubt that could just be shrugged off and cast away like a passing mood. He had been hit with a heavy dose of reality and now he could see his blissful fantasy beginning to crumble away before him. He had invested so much time into the materialization program already without even the slightest hint of success. Was the it really beyond him? Was he truly at the limits of his own abilities?

Jeremie opened his eyes and gazed over at his computer. The monitor was off, but he could still hear the hum of the machine running, a hum he had grown all too familiar with. He realized then that not once in almost two years did he ever turned off that computer. He always left it on as an ever present line of communication between himself and Aelita. A touch of a single key and he could have the entire Lyoko network loaded in an instant. As he stared at the computer screen he wondered if Aelita was thinking about him right now. Did she feel the same way about him that he felt about her? Did she feel anything for him at all? Was she even capable?

"Damn it! Why can't I just fall asleep?"

Jeremie shot upright in his bed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he vented his frustration in deep growl. He turned to his computer again, this time with a look of contempt. The soft hum that usually never bothered him was suddenly becoming unbearable to listen to. Finally, he leapt to his feet and snatched up his glasses, bringing the world around him into crisp focus. He found he now couldn't stand being in the room any longer. He didn't care that it was well past curfew. He didn't care that he could potentially get caught or that he would most certainly get in serious trouble if he did. Right now he just had to get out.

His shoes lay by the door in a heap and he scooped them up and hastily threw them on. He hadn't bothered with getting undressed that night, too distracted with his own worries to trouble himself with his normal evening routine. The hallway was dark when he exited his dorm room, but the moonlight spilling in from the windows at the far ends of the corridor gave him enough light to see by. He traced a path towards the nearest stairwell, making sure to keep the sounds of his movement to a bare minimum as he crept his way out of the dormitory.

Once outside Jeremie felt much more relaxed. As the cool air hit his face an invigorating sense of liberation flooded through him, and he filled his lungs and breathed out again in a sharp, cathartic release. He looked ahead of him into the darkness, spotting the boundary wall in the distance that marked the borders of the school campus, outlined by the lights of the city beyond, and grinned with a mischievous thought. He then began walking forward into the night, the looming silhouette of Kadic shrinking into the distance behind him.

* * *

The sky to the east took on a pinkish-orange hue as the sun rose steadily above the horizon with the arrival of dawn. Yumi gave a deep yawn and stretched her arms high above her head as she walked along her usual route on her way to school. She still hadn't managed to fully shake off her morning sleepiness. She had been up late again last night, her time with Jeremie ticking away into the late evening hours before they had finally parted ways. It had, in fact, been a very productive study session in spite of it's rough start, to her great approval. She smiled happily to herself at the thought. She hoped she could steal more of Jeremie's time for herself before too long.

Today's commute was proving to be an uneventful affair, not that there was ever anything remarkable about her morning walks to begin with. She smiled politely at a familiar middle-aged woman who she often saw walking her dog around this time. She crossed the usual crowded traffic intersections that cut through her path without incident. In the distance she could see Kadic Academy standing prominently against the surrounding landscape, taunting her as it always did with the promise of more tedious lectures ahead. But she would soon find the familiar rhythm of her routine broken as she caught an unexpected sight before her, a sandy haired boy crossing along an adjacent street on a course that merged with her own path.

"Jeremie?" She grinned as recognition struck her fully and raced forward to meet him, her tiredness now completely forgotten. "Jeremie! Hey, over here."

Jeremie had clearly not been aware of her presence, and when her voice had reached his ears he jolted and spun in her direction with a look of alarm, looking no less than as if he were expecting a wild tiger to be bounding his way. Upon recognizing her he sagged with visible relief. When Yumi caught up with him she was laughing breathlessly.

"What are doing out here so early? Shouldn't you be finishing up breakfast or getting ready for classes?"

Jeremie gave a sheepish smile and ran a hand through his hair. "Hi Yumi. I, uh, didn't quite feel up for breakfast today so I decided I would take a walk instead."

Yumi didn't miss the plainly guilty look on Jeremie's face or how unusually tense he seemed to be. She couldn't help feeling a creeping suspicion at his behavior, but the surprise of seeing him here now had put her in an incredibly good mood and she didn't want to say or do anything to ruin the moment. So instead she sidled up next to him and lightly bumped her shoulder against his, causing him to sway gently.

"Well lucky me then. I don't usually get to have company on my morning commutes." She then stepped around Jeremie until she was facing him head on and leaned towards him. "And since we're both headed in the same direction anyway you may as well walk with me."

Jeremie seemed to visibly relax then and he smiled back at her. "Yeah. Sure. Why not?"

As Yumi resumed her course towards the looming shape of Kadic Academy, Jeremie fell into step beside her. For the time being the pair traveled in mutual silence, Yumi just content to be in Jeremie's company and Jeremie apparently lost in his own thoughts, his expression unreadable, eyes absently tracing the walkway ahead of him. After several minutes passed he broke the silence between them.

"Yumi, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah. Anything."

It was another moment before the question came. "Do you think I've completely lost my mind?"

This caught Yumi by surprise, and she looked over at Jeremie in confusion. "No! Why would you even think that?"

Jeremie was slow to answer her, his expression pensive. "I've just been thinking a lot about everything you said to me yesterday, about my work on Lyoko and the materialization program.

She understood then, and Yumi turned her gaze away from Jeremie in a fit of guilt. "Look, I'm sorry I came down on you so hard you about that. To be honest, I was already pretty angry at you before I came to see you, and when you started going on about the materialization program all over again I guess I kind of snapped. It just really gets to me when I see you so willing to ignore everything else around you just so you can spend all your time working on Lyoko. I don't think you're crazy, Jer. Obsessed? Yes. But not crazy."

Jeremie seemed to contemplate her words at length before speaking again. "But you do think it's crazy for me to keep working on it at all."

Yumi didn't answer right away. She needed to consider her next words very carefully. Finally, she said, "You know I care a lot about you, right?"

Jeremie smiled her way. "Yeah. I think that's pretty obvious."

She hesitated then. Her resolve was already waning rapidly. She fought back the anxiety and pushed forward. "Look, I know how much bringing Aelita into the real world means to you. You love her, Jer. I know you do. And no, I don't think that makes you crazy either. I won't pretend that I can even begin to know how much it's hurting you not being able to have her here with you, and if I really thought there was a happy ending to this story I'd gladly stand behind you one-hundred percent. You deserve to be happy with the girl you love. I really want that for you more than anything. But I can't stand behind you throwing your life away for nothing and I won't. I promise you it's never going to work out the way you want it to. We're not sure it's even possible."

Yumi was reluctant to look in Jeremie's direction, afraid she might see that stony mask returning to his features, see evidence of them spiraling back into yesterday's argument. When she did she saw instead a calm, thoughtful look on his face as his eyes scanned the horizon ahead of them. He seemed more himself now, like something within him had shifted and whatever earlier troubles had left him so tense and withdrawn before had now been lifted from him. Somehow it didn't make her feel any better.

Silence settled between them once more as they continued making steady progress towards the boarding school. They weren't more than five minutes away at this point, and Yumi found herself wishing she had a lot more time to work with. It didn't feel like the issue at hand had been resolved at all, and her thoughts were buzzing madly in her head as she wondered at what Jeremie was trying to get at with his questions. Was he upset with her for not supporting his convictions and trying not to show it? Was he judging her now, expecting her stand by him as his best friend even if his beliefs seemed crazy and unobtainable, and she had wound up coming up short? As the distance between them and the boarding school shrank Yumi found her concern spiking exponentially. But, as hard as she tried, she couldn't seem to think of anything to say that wouldn't come off as either pleading or confrontational. She desperately wanted to avoid another fight with Jeremie, and she could hardly trust herself not to say something antagonistic, but she couldn't stand to leave things the way they presently stood.

Thankfully, it was Jeremie who broke the silence yet again. "You know I care a lot about you too, Yumi."

It took a second for Yumi to register the statement, another to recompose herself. "Yeah, I never doubted that for a second."

Jeremie's face shifted as he continued, a look of heavy remorse settling over his features. "Your friendship means a lot to me. I'd hate myself if I lost that because I was being a complete idiot."

"Jeremie, I don't think your being an idiot—" She stopped short as he turned to her with a gentle gaze, and she immediately understood he hadn't meant that as an insinuation of her own thoughts.

His eyes settled back onto the horizon. "You're right, you know? About everything. I didn't even realize how completely obsessed I had become with trying to materialize Aelita. I've been so consumed by it I never noticed what it was doing to me, what it was doing to my life. I can see now that it's taken over absolutely everything. I've been constantly avoiding the people that I care about most. I barely get out for anything except for meals and classes. It seems all I ever do now is sit endlessly in front of computer screens, trying to solve the same problem I've been struggling with since I first discovered Lyoko. I've been really stupid, Yumi. I've kept myself so closed off from anything that might come between me and my goal that I refused to even consider that it might not be possible in the first place.

Yumi shook her head. "You weren't being stupid at all. Before we discovered Lyoko none of us would have even dreamed it was possible to send someone inside a computer and into an actual virtual world. And yet, each and every one of us know what it feels like to do just that. We had already done the impossible. There was no reason to think it couldn't work the other way around. We all believed in it."

"And I'm the only one who couldn't see the truth in the end. You all tried to tell me and I wouldn't listen because I was blinded by my obsession. That seems pretty stupid to me, Yumi. I know better now. I know I can't keep doing this to myself anymore. Materializing Aelita is not something I can make happen just because I want it badly enough. I can't keep ignoring my life and the people I care about, not for something that may very well be impossible."

Yumi was suddenly aware of her heart pounding in her chest. She didn't even dare imagine what Jeremie might be trying to say. She refused to surrender to even the tiniest glimmer of anticipation. She wouldn't dare set herself up like that.

"Yumi..." She stopped the very instant he did, and when he turned to face her fully she followed suit. His face was perfectly serious, his eyes intense and locked firmly onto her own. "I want my life back. I need to put a stop to this insanity now before I lose everything that I care about. So I've made up my mind. I'm done. I'm quitting the materialization program…for good."

There was a very long stretch of silence that followed, and through it all Jeremie's expression shifted across a spectrum that went from anticipation to awkward confusion to concern.

"Um…Yumi? Are you alright?"

Yumi was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she had been standing in place staring at Jereme for far longer than was socially acceptable with a look she could only assume was entirely unflattering. When she finally found her voice she said, "You're serious? You're not just saying this for my benefit? You're actually quitting the materialization program?"

A look of bewilderment fell over Jeremie. He clearly wasn't expecting this particular reaction from her. "Um…yeah. That's kind of the whole point of everything I just said." He began to look more and more concerned as Yumi continued to stare at him without moving or saying anything, except she was now pinning him with a look of intense scrutiny, her face dripping with suspicion and doubt.

"Tell me you mean it," she finally said, her tone sharp and demanding. She was glaring at him now, her eyes boring into him with fiery emotion. "Tell me you're not going to just go back to obsessing over Aelita's materialization in another week or so. Tell me you're actually serious about this."

Jeremie was clearly startled by this sudden change in tone. He drew himself up and raised his hands in placation. "Hey, I mean it, Yumi. I'm completely serious about this. I'm not throwing away any more time on the materialization program. I'm done. I promise." He seemed leery of her now, as if he were expecting her to go off on him in another angry tirade.

But it wasn't anger Yumi felt then. All at once she drew her hands to her chest and raised her face up towards the sky. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath through her mouth before letting it out in a sharp, cathartic release. When she looked back at Jeremie she was smiling. "You don't know how relieved I am to hear that. I thought you might never come to your senses. I was so afraid you would just keep shutting everything else out of your life until nobody ever saw you again." She then moved towards Jeremie at an even pace until her body gently collided with his and she wrapped her arms around his middle, squeezing him softly against her. "I'm so glad that in the end you chose what was truly important."

At first Jeremie simply stood there in confused uncertainty, his arms hovering stiffly at his sides. When his shock eventually subsided he smiled and returned Yumi's hug.

For the remainder of the commute Yumi felt like she was suspended in a surreal haze. Jeremie was quitting the materialization program. He was actually quitting the materialization program. She played the thought over and over again in her mind, as if the mere act of leaving it unsaid would somehow stop it from being true. As it was, some cynical part of her kept insisting that it was simply too good to be true to begin with, that Jeremie couldn't possibly live up to what he said, no matter how good his intentions. She squashed it down with a vengeance. Jeremie's word was good enough for her. It would always be good enough for her.

Still, she would be foolish to think that there wouldn't be challenges to face in the coming days, that Jeremie wouldn't be afflicted by the sheer magnitude of the upheaval that he was surrendering himself to, that he wouldn't be wounded by the loss of his chance with Aelita, that he wouldn't be plagued by the temptation to return to his obsession. He was giving up something of such tremendous importance to him it was heartbreaking to think about, and she was largely responsible for that decision. Now was the time to make good on her promise to him that there was something better waiting for him outside of Lyoko. Now was the time for her to be there for him as any good friend should.

She would be ready to help Jeremie in any way that he needed. She wouldn't let him suffer this alone.

* * *

The school bell chimed throughout the campus of Kadic Academy, signaling the start of the lunch break. Odd and Ulrich had left their last class together and were walking side by side through the halls as they traced a well worn route on their way to the canteen.

"What's the deal with Meyers giving us an exam out of the blue like that." Odd was nearly shouting. "The nerve of her. I ought to launch a formal complaint about the unfair treatment of students in this school."

"Why do you even care?" Ulrich said flatly. "You passed, didn't you? And with pretty good marks too."

"That's not the point." Odd's voice soared in pitch. "It's the principle of it. I'm being unfairly represented here.

"Really?" Ulrich deadpanned.

"That's right. I have very specific needs that aren't being satisfied. I'm being put at a deliberate disadvantage to my peers. It's outrageous."

Ulrich raised his eyebrows at Odd. "And how, exactly, are you being put at a disadvantage to everyone else in our class?"

"Isn't it obvious? How else am I supposed to know how much time I have to ignore my schoolwork if teachers can just spring an exam on you any time they like. It's criminal. I'm what what you call a last-minute studier. I can't just study any time I want like some people. I need to goof off as much as possible until the very last second so that I can harness the pressure of the time crunch to focus me. It's how I'm wired."

"I don't think that would make a very compelling argument if you tried to present it to the school board as a platform for reform," Ulrich stated.

"All the more reason why it's so criminal. Last-minute studiers aren't taken seriously in this country. We're being actively marginalized by the school system, pushed aside because we don't fit the mold of an idealized student model. I tell you, the moral integrity of our society is crumbling before our very eyes. It's only a matter of time before the crime rate skyrockets and riots break out all over the city."

"Yes, Odd. The whole world is going to end, all because you have to study the same way as everybody else."

Odd grinned at him. "Exactly. I knew you'd understand."

The pair emerged out onto the southern quad. The canteen was straight ahead of them, and they picked up the pace with the promise of food directly within their sights. They hadn't made it far before Ulrich heard a familiar voice calling his name from somewhere back near the entranceway the two of them had just passed through. He and Odd turned around in unison and spotted Sissi, waving in their direction from the stoop. When she saw she had Ulrich's attention she rushed forward to catch up with them.

"Oh great," Odd groaned, immediately frowning at the sight of Sissi. "Here comes the wicked witch of the west."

Ulrich winced at Odd's comment and shot him a heated glare. Odd failed to notice this. For now, his attention was entirely on Sissi. When she was within ear shot he stepped forward and began to shout.

"Hey Sis-ACK!"

Ulrich swiftly cut Odd off with a sharp elbow to the solar plexus, and he doubled over in shock and pain, gripping his stomach as he sputtered and gasped for air. When he could straighten himself up again he was further stunned to see that Ulrich had made his way over to Sissi. Even more shocking was that he was actually smiling at her. Now Odd's anger turned to confusion. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Ulrich was actually happy to see Sissi? Was he going out of his mind?

When Ulrich reached Sissi he greeted her cheerfully. "Hey, Sissi. How are things?" As soon as the words left his mouth he realized how weird that sounded. Only a few days ago he would have been bombarding Sissi with colorful insults, same as Odd was clearly prepared to do, and now he was greeting her like an old friend. He couldn't deny that their relationship had changed dramatically since that afternoon they had spent together. He simply couldn't look at her the same way anymore.

"Oh, things are, um, really good," Sissi said in an uncharacteristically reserved tone. Her eyes flitted to the ground and she turned her face away from Ulrich, her posture suggesting that something was tugging at her mind. "I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind me joining you for the break, that is, if it's okay with you and all." She turned to face Ulrich again and her eyes were filled with a hopeful look.

Now Ulrich was feeling very apprehensive. He made a quick glance at Odd still standing where he had left him before turning back to Sissi. "Um, well I...well you see..." he scratched the back of his neck as nerves overtook him, at a loss for what to say next. He knew Odd wouldn't approve of Sissi tagging along with them. His best friend had no idea he and Sissi had officially ended their feud, or that they had since become friendly with each other, and even if he explained himself, Odd probably wouldn't accept her anyway, given that he flat out despised her. He really didn't want to say no, but he knew the results were likely to be disastrous, especially once Yumi showed up to join them and saw he and Sissi together. He really didn't need that kind of complication in his life right now, and he was sure Sissi didn't care to endure any more emotional abuse.

He finally decided he would have to lie to save face. "Well actually, Sissi, I really can't hang out right now. I, uh, need to go cram for a Biology test next period. I've been kind of putting it off all week and this one's supposed to be really tough. I'm really sorry, but I'm going to have to say no.

The disappointment was plain in Sissi's face, and Ulrich didn't miss the uncertainty that colored the expression as well, but if she suspected he was lying to her, she didn't voice it. "I understand. Well, I guess I'll see you around then." She then made her own way towards the canteen, making sure to give Odd a wide berth in the process.

Ulrich felt a mixture of relief and guilt as he watched Sissi leave. He hated himself for having lied to her, but he knew that it would never work out just dropping her into his circle of friends out of the blue. He joined back up with Odd, who was presently staring back at him looking, in no uncertain terms, royally pissed off.

"What the hell was that all about," Odd snapped at the first opportunity. "First you go and knock the wind out of me, thanks for that by the way, then I see you having a nice chit chat with Sissi over there like you're suddenly old chums. What's the big deal?"

"Listen Odd, just lay off the smart ass remarks around Sissi, alright?" Ulrich snapped back. "There's no reason to keep ragging on her."

" _What?_ " Odd's eyes went wide. "But we make fun of Sissi all the time. You never had a problem with it before."

"Well maybe it's time we start being a little nicer to her," Ulrich said hotly. "She's really not half bad once you get to know her. Maybe you'd know that if you actually took the time to think once in a while instead of just opening your big mouth."

Odd looked stricken, and his face quickly set back into a scowl. "I don't know what's wrong with you, Ulrich, but you're really starting to act like a total asshole."

"Just shut up, Odd. I don't want to talk about it anymore." Ulrich started to walk off, but Odd promptly stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

"No, I won't just shut up. Just what is your problem anyway? Why are you even going out of your way to protect Sissi all of a sudden? It's not like you even like her."

"And what if I do?" Ulrich said darkly. He curled his fingers into tight fists, his anger rising to a boil. "What if I do like Sissi? What the hell are you going to do about it?" The sudden forcefulness of his outburst took Odd by surprise and he staggered backwards, his palms raised in warding.

"Jesus Christ, Ulrich! I'm you friend, remember?"

"Just get out of my face, alright? What I do and think is my own business and nobody else's, so just drop it."

Odd just frowned at Ulrich. "You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you've actually got a thing for Sissi."

Ulrich froze. Odd's last statement stuck like a hammer blow and for a moment he just stood there dumbstruck, staring at him like he had just uttered some obscene profanity. Finally he stood up straight, trading his anger for cold indifference, and turned his back to his friend. "You know what Odd? I really don't need this," he said coldly. "You can go have lunch by yourself for all I care. I'm out of here." Ulrich then walked away without another word, leaving Odd standing there in complete disbelief.

When he caught up with Sissi she seemed startled by his sudden reappearance. "Hey Sissi. I've just remembered that my Biology test is next week. Funny, huh? So, you still wanna do lunch together?" He did his best to hide the fact that he had just had it out with his best friend, putting on what he hoped was a convincing smile.

Sissi's face lit up. "I'd love to."

"Great. There's this Greek restaurant in town that I want to take you to. The food there is really good." And it will keep us far away from Odd, he thought with added satisfaction. He then led the way towards main the campus gates, the two of them immediately slipping into familiar conversation.


	6. Chapter 6

_"Confidante"_

The strip Ulrich and Sissi now traveled was alive with activity as crowds of bustling pedestrians moved up and down the length of the avenue in a steady stream while clusters broke away to funnel in and out of the surrounding establishments. The lunch rush was in full swing, and as they came to their destination at a modest Mediterranean style take out restaurant the place was already fairly crowded with eager patrons jostling for service. Fortunately the queue within moved quickly enough, and the pair didn't have to wait long for their turn at the service counter. Once their food was in hand, they took up residence at one of the vacant tables just outside the restaurant, agreeing on a open view of the busy strip and the small enjoyment of people watching as they talked and ate.

It had been easy enough to pick up from where the two of them had left off from the day before, slipping into that same comfortable rhythm that already seemed familiar to Ulrich. They had barely scratched the surface, it seemed, of all there was for them to talk about, and he enjoyed the frictionless ease at which he found he could to speak his mind to Sissi, and the fluid and candid commentary she made in reply. She seemed to be enjoying herself, and Ulrich had to admit that he was enjoying their time together as well, in spite of himself. It was an unexpected sort of synergy that had emerged between the two of them, a smooth compatibility that he would not have anticipated to form from such unlikely circumstances. He wanted to explore this new and intriguing side of Sissi further. He wanted to see where it might take him.

Throughout it all Ulrich had been doing his best to try and put Odd out of his mind. Their brief spat earlier had left him with a lingering resentment that irritated him to no end, as if the quality of his afternoon recess had been sabotaged by the other's stupidity, and he was determined now to enjoy himself in spite of it. But while Sissi's company made a fairly good distraction, he still couldn't seem to free his mind from the nagging bitterness that still hovered at the edges of his mood. He could push the nuisance thoughts out of his head for modest lengths of time, but they always came creeping back to him against his will. And each time they slipped back into his awareness it was becoming increasingly harder for him to shove them away again.

"You know, you don't have to lie to me."

At the sound of Sissi's voice Ulrich came alert as if roused from a dream. The table, Sissi, the busy strip, all snapped back into focus in one sharp transition. He didn't know how long he had slipped out of the conversation this time around, but there was no way Sissi would have overlooked his unusual fits of distraction. The look on her face at this point was even. The tone of her statement had been entirely neutral.

"What do you mean?" Ulrich kept his own tone smooth and conversational, though he felt a prickle of apprehension at Sissi's remark.

"I know why you said no the first time I asked if we could hang out for lunch," she said plainly. "I'm also pretty sure I know why you suddenly changed your mind." For a brief pause Sissi watched Ulrich, her eyes unreadable as she scrutinized him in silence. Then her lips twitched into a wry smirk. "I'm guessing Odd wasn't too thrilled to see you consorting with the enemy."

"Odd's an idiot," Ulrich spat. The anger flooded back easily and this time he didn't bother to restrain it.

"Listen." Sissi straightened herself and her manner became more serious. "I never thought that just because we're now on good terms that all the drama in our lives would just suddenly disappear. Maybe I was asking for trouble by trying to talk to you while Odd was around, but you don't need to shield me from it. I can handle it. Trust me. I know how to take a little abuse."

Ulrich looked away with a pang of guilt. He knew the truth of that statement well enough.

Sissi's features then shifted to something more subdued and her eyes slid off to watch the people flowing past them. "I know this is weird for both of us. I honestly don't really know how this is all supposed to work now. It's been this one way for so long and now everything's changed all at once. I really like the idea of us being able to spend time together as friends, but I can't help questioning if that's even a realistic expectation at this point. I guess right now I'm just trying to feel things out."

"Hey, you already know I want us to be able to hang out too." Ulrich said. "If I didn't think it would cause such a big problem I would have just invited you to join me and Odd for lunch."

Sissi shot him a look of annoyance. "You don't have to force me to fit into your life. I know better than to have any expectations about us one way or the other. If it works, it works. If it doesn't—well, then I'll just have to learn to live with that. I can accept it either way. Just don't lie to me. If it's not a good time for you then just say so. I'm really not as fragile as you think I am."

"You're right. I'm sorry." Ulrich felt mildly embarrassed now. "This has been really confusing for me too. I can't help worrying about how everyone else is going to take it if they see us acting friendly around each other. And I haven't been too far off the mark either. To be honest, Odd kind of went off on me when he saw you and I talking earlier. He was being a total ass about it. You'd think I'd completely lost my mind or something. I'd rather not have to deal with that kind of bullshit. But I don't want it to stop us from at least trying to be friends. I had fun with you yesterday. I'm having fun with you now. I don't want to have to get shit for that."

"You could try talking to your friends," Sissi said pointedly, turning to look at Ulrich once more. "Give them a chance to get used to the idea instead of blowing their minds all at once."

"Yeah, easier said than done," said Ulrich. "Sometimes it feels like my friends only see what they want to see. At best they'll think I've lost my mind and then they won't let up on me until I've come to my senses. At worst they'll think I've betrayed them or something and then I'll never hear the end of it."

"Come on Ulrich. You don't seriously believe that," Sissi said. "You don't think you're friends trust you enough to know that you'd have a good reason for changing your mind?"

"I don't know. I feel like everyone always gets the wrong idea whenever I'm nice to you," said Ulrich. "Either I hate you like always or I must be in love with you. There's no in between. I mean, Odd even accused me of falling for you. That's not even the first time he's done it either. I always wind up having to defend myself with those guys. It's frustrating, you know?"

"And it's pretty safe to assume you're afraid Yumi will get the wrong idea as well."

Ulrich averted his eyes. "Yeah…that too."

Sissi eyed him critically. "Look Ulrich, I'm sure you've already figured this out, but I'll say it outright. You're safe from me. You made your point very clear about your feelings towards me and I've accepted it. At this point I'm not looking for anything more than your friendship, and I would say as much if anyone ever asked. If you still have any doubt that things might be otherwise then I'm telling you right now that they aren't. Now, as for your friends, even if they can't believe it at first they'll figure it out eventually. They can't ignore what's right in front of them. It's not like you've got anything to hide from them anyway." Then Sissi narrowed her eyes at Ulrich. "And I think you should give Yumi a little more credit. I think by now she knows you well enough to not go jumping to those kinds of silly conclusions. She's more sensible than that. You should trust her a little more."

At this point, Ulrich gave Sissi a look somewhere between amusement and disbelief. Sissi's stern expression faltered.

"And now you're looking at me funny."

"You're being totally reasonable right now," Ulrich said. "Honestly, it's a little weird."

Sissi glared at Ulrich. "Hey, that's not funny. I'm trying to be serious here."

"I'm sorry," Ulrich said through restrained laughter. "I'm just not used to hearing you saying anything that isn't either nasty or self absorbed. I had to do a reality check on myself to make sure you were still the same Sissi."

"I can think of something really nasty to say to you right now if it will help." Sissi said in a heated tone.

"Hey, I'm not complaining or anything," Ulrich quickly added. "I like things the way they are just fine. But you have to admit, it is funny when you think about it. You almost can't blame people for acting weird when they see us acting nice to each other. It'd be kinda like if Yumi started showing up to school wearing pink, or if Odd started getting top marks."

"You know, we could have a little fun with this." Sissi flashed a conspiratorial smile his way. "We could really mess with people's heads, you know, screw with them so badly that us being friends in the end would seem totally normal by comparison."

Ulrich pulled a face. "As tempting as that sounds I don't think we could ever pull something like that off without royally screwing it up somewhere in the process. The last thing we want to do is go making things worse for ourselves."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Sissi said soberly. "I've had enough bright ideas blow up in my face that I should probably know better by now. So what are you going to do about Odd?"

"Ignore him."

Sissi raised an eyebrow. "Ignore him? You mean, the guy you currently share a room with?"

"Yeah. Won't be too hard," Ulrich stated plainly. "I won't say anything to him and he won't say anything to me. Plain and simple. Rinse and repeat."

"And how long do you plan to keep this up for?"

"Forever."

"Forever?" Sissi's tone was highly dubious.

"Forever," Ulrich repeated flatly. "Maybe even longer."

Sissi stared at him several seconds. Finally she said, "You should just talk to him. He's your friend. I'm sure he'll understand when you explain things to him."

"There's no point. Odd never listens to me anyway," Ulrich countered.

"I mean it, Ulrich," Sissi pressed. "Just get it out in the open and done with. You know he's not going to just let it go."

"I don't owe him an explanation." Ulrich could feel his anger rising again. "If Odd can't deal with you and me being friends then that's his problem."

"Don't be stupid, Ulrich," Sissi snapped. "He's your roommate. You can't avoid him even if you wanted to. It's your problem too whether you like it or not. If you don't do something about it now it will only get a whole lot worse real quick. And when it does, don't even bother saying anything to me about it because I won't have any sympathy for you."

"Fine," Ulrich huffed. "I'll think about it, okay? In any case, I'm done talking about Odd."

The intervening silence hung in the air like a bold punctuation mark, and Ulrich fixed his gaze on the moving crowds before them, his thoughts soured and irritated. After a short period of time a conspicuous smile formed on Sissi's lips.

"Would you rather we talk about Yumi instead?"

Ulrich's slammed his palms against the table. "Oh come on! Not you too?" His agitated shout carried well above the surrounding din and a few stray looks were cast his way from among the strangers around them. He fell back in his seat in exasperation and covered his face with one hand. "Why is everyone so fucking fascinated with what goes on between me and Yumi."

"What? It makes for juicy gossip," Sissi casually remarked. "And the two of you are pretty much a living soap opera at this point. You've got practically the whole class obsessing over whether you two are finally going to hook up or not. You guys aren't exactly subtle."

"You're kidding." Ulrich was deeply disturbed by the thought of all his classmates taking so much of an interest in his love life.

"Even I have to admit you two make a pretty cute couple," Sissi continued. "You know, you would have saved us both lot of trouble if you guys had just started dating from the beginning. What I don't understand is why you two still haven't hooked up after all this time. Honestly, it's pretty infuriating watching you two dance around each other like a couple of ridiculous little children. Some of us are pretty eager for a little closure, you know."

"Glad to see everyone is so invested in me and Yumi's relationship status." Ulrich hoped his sarcasm was reading loud and clear. "Not that it's anyone else's business."

"No, but the question still stands." Sissi gave Ulrich a meaningful look.

"Why do you even care?" Ulrich snapped. "Why does the whole world need to know my private business." He was starting to feel like he was under interrogation. Why couldn't people just leave the subject alone?

Sissi's expression softened. "I'm just asking. Honestly, I just can't wrap my head around why you two haven't gotten together yet. I mean, you two really do seem to care a lot about each other. You do care about her, right?"

"Of course I care about Yumi," Ulrich snapped. "I care about her more than anything. That's not even in question."

"Do you love her?"

Ulrich stumbled over himself, his anger failing him as the weight of the question hit him with unexpected force, and for the moment he was completely lost for words, his mouth working without sound until he had the self awareness to close it. He now found he could no longer meet Sissi's eye. He pried at his jumbled thoughts for an adequate response to her. It was quickly dawning on him that he didn't have one.

"How…how am I even supposed to answer that?"

Sissi's look was patronizing. "It's easy. Either you love Yumi or you don't. So which is it?"

"I-I don't know," Ulrich stammered. He was feeling suddenly exposed. This had gotten far too personal for his liking. "Why does it even matter at this point? Isn't that the whole point of dating anyway? To figure that kind of thing out?"

"You're not wrong Ulrich, but I really don't think that's your case." Sissi's tone was gentle, though the look she was giving him was firm and direct. "The way you are around Yumi is way more than just someone with a simple crush. Look, forget I asked. Just take this into consideration. Before long, Yumi's going to be going off to university, and when that happens her priorities are going to change drastically. Do you really think you will still have a shot with her when that happens? Maybe you think you'll be able to hold onto her from a distance. Maybe it will even work out for a short time at least. But if you haven't already made some kind of commitment to one another eventually the both of you will just drift apart, not because you want to, but because you'll be so busy with things way more important by then that it will just be easier not to bother. And who even knows where you'll wind up after college, if either of you even stay in the country once you've got your degrees. If you love her Ulrich, _now_ is the time to make your move. You've wasted plenty of time as it is. If that bothers you at all that should tell you something right there."

The first thought that crossed Ulrich's mind was how bizarre it was that Sissi, of all people, was offering him helpful relationship advice pertaining to Yumi, a girl she had always disliked with a passion. Then he began to consider the message itself and the implications that lay behind it. Even if he wasn't sure whether he was actually in love with Yumi or not, he knew he didn't want to lose the opportunity to at least try to take things further with her. His feelings for her were self evident. He cared about Yumi more than he had ever cared about anyone else in his life. She was precious to him. To lose her would hurt him immeasurably. And it did bother him that they had let so much time slip past them without knowing what more they could have between them. But he also had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to move things forward with her.

"So what exactly are you suggesting I do then?"

Sissi threw her hands up with a frustrated groan. "Ugh, are you even listening?" She shouted angrily. "Go-and-ask-her-out-you-idiot. That's it. It's that simple. Stop being completely ridiculous and make a proper move on her before it's too late and you end up regretting it for the rest of your life."

Ulrich blinked at Sissi, shock rendering him momentarily speechless. When he did find his voice, his words came out slow and disconnected. "Ask…her…out." Now Sissi was frowning at him hard. He must be looking really stupid to her right now. He was having a great deal of trouble wrapping his head around the notion. "Just like that?"

"Yes!" Sissi said in a long, exasperated breath.

It did sound so incredibly simple when she said it like that. So why then did it seem so completely overwhelming to him when he pictured himself actually doing it? Just thinking about approaching Yumi with the intent of formally asking her to be his girlfriend was causing his heart to race out of control in his chest. He wasn't seeing the act itself so much as the countless disastrous outcomes his imagination seemed to effortlessly dredge up when he tried to entertain the possibility. It occurred to him then just how much the thought actually terrified him. Sissi must have figured out as much for herself as in that moment she put a gentle hand over his, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Hey, it's not as bad as you think? You're acting like you're asking out some random girl you just met on the street. This is _Yumi_ we're talking about. You seriously think she doesn't want it as bad as you do?"

Ulrich floundered. "But...but what if she-"

"Oh just shut up!" Sissi snapped, switching back to anger in a flash. "You know she's into you at least as much as you're into her. She will say yes. If you seriously think otherwise then you really are just hopelessly dense and you deserve to be alone and miserable for the rest of your life."

"Okay, okay, I get it." Ulrich relented. "Jeez, leave at least some of my self esteem intact." He was beginning to feel overwhelmed. This conversation was pushing at the very limits of his comfort zone.

"Look, if it's really that hard for you to make a move on your own, I'll even agree to help you out." Sissi offered.

"Wait, What?" Ulrich did a double take. " _You_ want to help _me_ hook up with _Yumi_?"

"Hey, why not? It's pretty obvious you desperately need all the help you can get. And I could use a fun new distraction." Sissi flashed him a mischievous smile.

"O-kay..." Ulrich was eyeing Sissi warily now. "I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with that idea."

"And I'm pretty sure the decision's just been made for you." Sissi countered, narrowing her eyes on him. "If you think I'm just going to stand by and watch you totally blow your chances with the girl of your dreams you've got another thing coming. After all..." Sissi leaned in close to Ulrich, smiling just a little too sweetly. "What are friends for, right? Just make it easy on yourself and play along."

Ulrich felt an unpleasant chill creep up his spine, and he drew himself slowly back against his seat, looking at Sissi more warily then ever. "You're...actually serious about this."

"Yes," Sissi declared firmly.

Ulrich simply stared at her dumbly for a long moment, trying hard to process this new and unexpected development. Everyone, it seemed, had their own opinions about how he should handle his relationship with Yumi, and most of those people had no problems with sharing them with him at length, but no one had ever laid out such a practical course before him so plainly and then offered to help to him see it through. His knee-jerk reaction was to reject Sissi's proposal outright. To accept any such offer would be a commitment to action he did not at all feel ready to embrace. But in spite of Sissi's oppressive tactic he knew in the end she was absolutely right. If he couldn't act now, what guarantee was there that he would ever have the confidence to make a real move on Yumi before it was too late.

A spark of conviction lit up within him, and he came to a decision then. "Fine. I'll let you help me." Sissi beamed at him in triumph. "But you have to tell me anything you might be planning before you do _anything_ ," Ulrich said in stern warning, pinning her with a severe look. "I know what happens when you start getting big ideas. And I have to approve of it or else it's not happening. Got it? If you do even one thing behind my back it's over, and you can bet I won't talk to you ever again for good measure."

"Fair enough," Sissi declared with satisfaction.

Ulrich finally let go of the tension in his body that he didn't realize he had been holding onto up to that point. He sank back against his chair and brought his hands to his face, letting the momentary darkness act to reset his frazzled mind as he sighed loudly. When he let his hands fall back at his sides he looked over to see Sissi still grinning smugly at him. A thought struck him then.

"There is one more thing I need you to do for me," Ulrich said, his tone still laced with pointed threat.

"And what would that be?" Sissi replied with apparent interest.

He then flashed her a cheeky smile. "Say something shallow and annoying. I think I need another reality check."

Sissi obliged him by punching him hard in the arm. It hurt way more than he would have expected, and Ulrich made a mental note not to piss her off in the future.


	7. Chapter 7

_"Propositions"_

Odd hadn't spoken to Ulrich since their argument earlier that afternoon. In fact, in all their classes together afterwards he had made the extra effort to sit as far away from him as possible, refusing even to acknowledge him. At first, Ulrich happily obliged, pretending he didn't even know Odd existed, but it wasn't long before guilt began to plague him. Odd had a right to be angry with him. Ulrich had never bothered to mention that he and Sissi had become friends and elbowing him may have not been the best way to deliver that message. He really shouldn't have gotten as angry as he did. He really didn't know what had come over him. By the final class of the day, he had decided that it was time to make peace with his best friend.

The final bell rang and Ulrich immediately turned to Odd's seat, only to catch a glimpse of his backside as he quickly disappeared out the door. Odd must have still been very angry with him, because Ulrich had never seen him escape a classroom so quickly, and Odd made a regular effort to be the first out of class to begin with. Still, he needed to drop off his supplies at their dorm room, so Ulrich would track him to the dormitory and apologize there. At least in the privacy of their shared quarters, if they got into another fight, they wouldn't draw unwanted attention.

He dashed out into the hallway and spotted Odd quite a distance away, moving at a double pace as he made his way towards the nearest exit. Ulrich suspected Odd meant to stash his belongings and be gone before he could reach the dorm himself. He followed at a reasonable distance, not wanting Odd to suspect he was being pursued, lest he pull some swift escape maneuver and vanish altogether. Odd had a unique talent for losing himself in a crowd if he didn't want to be seen, even though his flashy purple garments and distinct taper of long, blonde hair made him stick out vividly against his surroundings, and judging by his behavior, Ulrich was sure Odd was keen on avoiding him.

They soon came upon the dormitory and Ulrich waited a few seconds after Odd had entered the building before going inside himself. Once inside, he picked up his pace, closing in on Odd in the final stretch just as he entered their dorm room, slamming the door behind him.

Jeez, Odd really was still angry with him, he thought as he crept up to the door and carefully turned the knob. He pushed the door open ever so gently and leaned in towards the gap in hopes of sneaking a glimpse of Odd without him catching on, wanting a closer assessment of his mood before he took any further action. The door then abruptly slammed closed in his face, the solid wood colliding with his forehead with an audible thud, and a shock of pain bloomed in Ulrich's forehead. He staggered backwards, clasping a hand over the now throbbing flesh, and shouted a long string of expletives so loudly that a few students nearby stopped and stared at him like he had gone mad. In a flash of anger he seized the doorknob and threw open the door, stomping angrily into the room. He spotted Odd sitting on his own bed with arms folded, looking back at him with a callous expression. "What the fuck was that for?" he bellowed.

"Why don't you ask my stomach?" Odd replied coldly, glaring at Ulrich with a look of deep resentment.

Ulrich swallowed his anger down, realizing he probably had something like that coming in the first place. He forced himself to ignore the throbbing pain in his forehead and took a brief moment to cool down before speaking again. "Listen Odd, I didn't come here for a fight. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened earlier today."

"Sorry for attacking me for no reason at all?" Odd snapped. "Sorry for acting like a complete ass and ditching your best friend for the most obnoxious girl in creation? By the way, where is your new girlfriend anyway? I'm sure Yumi would love to meet her."

Ulrich flinched. "She's not my girlfriend Odd. We've just...we've just made peace with each other, okay? I've been trying to be nicer to her and I didn't want you to make fun of her. You know I would never do something like that to Yumi."

"Oh really? Well you could've fooled me," Odd's scowl was unforgiving. Ulrich clenched his fists tightly, fighting back the urge to make a nasty retort.

"Listen, Odd. I said I'm sorry, alright? I was a complete jerk. I admit it. Are you going to keep making a big deal out of this or what?"

Odd glared at Ulrich in silence for a long moment, his face giving nothing away but simmering resentment. His lips then stretched into a wide grin. "Okay Ulrich, I forgive you, but only because you're my best friend and I would have to be a real jerk not to." His smile then abruptly faded and the hardened glare returned. "But this doesn't mean I'm not still pissed off at you. That elbow to my stomach really hurt y'know. You really hit me hard."

"Well, you weren't so gentle with slamming that door in my face either," Ulrich countered, pointing at the prominent welt that had risen up on his forehead, "so I guess that makes us even."

"So am I going to get an explanation or what?" Odd settled back onto his bed, resting his back against the wall, and gave Ulrich a demanding look.

Ulrich balked. He knew that this was coming sooner or later, but he would have rather not had to go into detail about his encounters with Sissi before he had more time to make sense of it all for himself. Then again, that was probably little more than a lame excuse on his part. He would feel no better talking about it if he had had a week or even a month to consider things. He took a seat on his own bed and set to work organizing the details in his mind.

"You remember how Herve and Nicholas showed up the other day?" Ulrich began.

"Sure. Herve was going absolutely nuts over Sissi," Odd recounted. "What the heck was he even talking about anyway? He sounded like he thought you attacked her or worse."

Ulrich shook his head. "No, but something did happen the night before."

Odd was now very attentive. "Wait. You didn't actually do something to Sissi, did you?" He gave Ulrich a scandalized look.

"What? No!" Ulrich gave Odd a look of severe reproach. "I didn't do anything to her. She actually came looking for me the night before that, the night I was with Yumi. I ran into her after me and Yumi split up, when I was heading back to our dorm."

"So you caught her stalking you?" Odd looked to be drinking in the story like he was picking up seedy gossip.

"Yes. I mean, no." Ulrich shook his head on reflex. Odd was throwing him off his train of thought. "She wasn't stalking me. It wasn't like that at all. Not this time. She just wanted to talk to me."

Odd looked skeptical. "In the middle of the night, hours after curfew?"

"Just shut up and listen," Ulrich barked. "She was waiting for me in front of the dorms. She said she really needed to tell me something." Ulrich vividly remembered the potent look in her eyes as she worked herself up to that eventual confession. It still provoked a visceral reaction in him. When he didn't continue, Odd spoke up again.

"So? what did she say?"

A feeling of embarrassment overcame Ulrich and he looked away from Odd. "She said…she said that she loved me."

"That's it?" Odd seemed thoroughly unimpressed by the revelation.

"It wasn't just her hitting on me like she usually does," Ulrich snapped in defense. "I knew she liked me, but I didn't actually think there were any real feelings there. I thought she was only being shallow and clingy. All of us did. But that night she told me she was in love with me the whole time. I wouldn't have believed her except she wasn't acting the way she normally does. For once she was acting like an actual human being. Odd, she was serious. She begged me to tell her how I really felt about her. She was trying to find out if I felt the same way about her."

"So what did you say to her?" Odd pressed, his interest now rekindled.

"Obviously, I told her I don't feel the same way." Ulrich said. "She took it really hard. She ran off crying after that." The recollection brought Ulrich a sharp pang of guilt. "I actually felt really bad for her."

"Well, I guess that explains why you got a visit from her two cronies yesterday," Odd mused. "She must have been really torn up if Herve was ready to fight you over it. The guy's still crazy about her, even though she treats him like complete garbage." Odd's look turned pensive. "Who would have thought Sissi actually has a heart. So I'm guessing when you ditched me yesterday you were going off to see her, didn't you? You always did have a serious white knight complex."

Ulrich chose to ignore Odd's last comment. "Yeah, I went to see her. We talked. A lot, actually. We smoothed things over. I managed to make her feel better at least. We promised we'd be nicer to each other after that." Ulrich spread his hands in a gesture of finality. "That's pretty much it."

Silence followed as Odd appeared to process the entire story. After a another moment he said, "so what, are you friends now, or is this just some kind of truce?"

"We're friends, I guess," Ulrich said with uncertainty. "At least, we're trying to be. We're not really sure where to take things from here."

"So why didn't you just tell me to that to begin with." Odd gave Ulrich a severe look. "Did you really think I wouldn't understand what was going on?"

Ulrich suddenly felt a hot sting of shame. Why didn't he think he could trust Odd with the truth? Shouldn't he have had more faith in his best friend? "I… I thought you would just make fun of me, that you'd act like I had lost my mind or something because I was actually being nice to Sissi."

Odd gave a disapproving look. "You're my best friend, Ulrich. I may give you a hard time about a lot of things, but I'm not going to put you down or shun you just because you do something I might not understand or agree with. Seriously, you should know me better than that."

Ulrich hung his head. "I know. I'm sorry. I'm an idiot. Even Sissi was trying to tell me that."

"Wait, Sissi called you an idiot?" Odd was now giving Ulrich a strange look.

"What? No." Ulrich shook off his momentary confusion. "She said I should trust you. She kept pressuring me to talk to you after she found out we had fought so we could patch things up."

Odd stared at Ulrich in astonishment. "When was this?"

"During lunch." Ulrich felt his embarrassment returning. "I never mentioned it, but she asked if we could hang out for the the break. At first I told her no, but after you and I fought, I decided to take her up on her proposal. We were together the whole time after that." Ulrich braced himself for the snide comment he was sure was coming.

"You mean Sissi actually said something nice about me?" Odd still appeared to be fixed on Ulrich's previous statement, his face plastered with a look of shock. Ulrich hadn't expected that kind of reaction. Regardless, he was inwardly relieved.

"Yeah. Actually, she's been acting completely different now since we hashed things out. She's mellowed out a lot and she's been a whole lot nicer too. She's actually been pretty cool to be around so far, and she hasn't tried to hit on me even once. It's actually pretty weird. I'm still getting used to it."

"Hey, you think maybe I could tag along next time you see her?" Odd asked in a sudden burst of excitement.

It was Ulrich's turn to give Odd a look of astonishment. "You're joking."

"No, I'm serious. I have to see this for myself. Sissi being nice? What's next? Is Kiwi going start speaking Polish and doing the two-step?"

Ulrich gave him a wary look. Odd was starting to weird him out. "It's not that hard to believe, Odd. She's not horrible all the time."

"Speak for yourself," Odd exclaimed. "Sissi may have a soft spot for you, but she's been nothing but nasty to me since we first met. Try having someone tell you you're worst nightmare just turned into a cuddly teddy bear. I'm not going to believe it until I see it with my own eyes."

Ulrich frowned at Odd. "I'm not going to set up a get together between you and Sissi just so you can make a scene."

Odd threw his hands up defensively. "Hey, it's not like that. I wouldn't make fun of her or anything like that. There's just no way I could miss out on seeing Sissi acting _normal_. I'd even be nice to her for a change."

"You mean you'd actually behave yourself if the three of us were to hang out together?"

"Of course. Look, I get it. Sissi's turned over a new leaf or something like that. Whatever. If you're willing to be friends with her then I'm willing to give her a fair chance too. If you let me hang out with you guys I swear I won't say one mean thing to her."

Ulrich considered Odd for a long moment. What he was proposing was, without question completely absurd. Odd and Sissi had always shared a mutual animosity towards one another which had resulted in some pretty epic fights between them in the past. But on the flip side, if Odd was being sincere, it would certainly make things a whole lot easier on him if he and Sissi managed to actually get along. There would be less pressure to divide his time between his old friends and his new one. It would also make it easier to turn Yumi as well, when the time came.

The blonde teen continued to fix him with an expectant look, but otherwise kept quiet as Ulrich carefully weighed his options. Finally, Ulrich spoke. "I'll let you tag along only if you swear you won't to go after Sissi for any reason, even if she makes you angry. If things don't work out, we break it off peacefully, okay? No insults. No fighting. We just end it and walk away. Got it?"

"Fine. I can do that."

"And no being a smartass or trying to provoke her either," Ulrich added. "I promised Sissi I would be nicer to her. That includes my friends as well."

"Jeez, Ulrich, I'm not some rabid dog waiting for my chance to bite someone's head off. I'll be nice to Sissi, okay? Promise."

Ulrich finally assented. "Alright. Next time me and Sissi hang out, you're coming along. Are you happy now?"

Odd grinned. "Very."

It was then that a spontaneous vision entered Ulrich's mind. Sissi and Odd were sitting across from one another at a well dressed table, garbed in elegant finery and leisurely sipping tea from fine china as they exchanged pleasantries between them with an air of utmost civility. Somehow this image seemed more disturbing to him than if he had imagined them tearing each other's throats out in raw, bloody carnage. He quickly shook it off.

"Okay then. If we're finally done with that subject, I'd like to get started on our afternoon while there's still daylight left."

"Fine by me," Odd said cheerfully. All traces of his previous anger seemed to have vanished entirely. "So what is it you had in mind?"

"I was actually thinking we could try and catch up with Yumi first," Ulrich said. "I'm pretty sure she's not happy with us for ditching her yesterday, and I doubt me not being there for lunch today helped any. I'd like to try and make it up to her."

"What a surprise," Odd said in a mocking tone. "Alrighty then. Ring her up, Romeo." Ulrich shot Odd a look before fishing his cell phone out of his pocket and dialing Yumi's number. After a pause he frowned and ended the call.

"She's not answering."

"Guess you missed your chance Romeo," Odd remarked. "Juliet must have gotten tired of waiting and decided to fall on her dagger after all."

Ulrich gave Odd a firm shove. "Why do you always got to be like that?"

"Hey, I only have to be nice to Sissi. With you, I can still be whatever I want."

It took a tremendous amount of effort for Ulrich not to say something incredibly inappropriate. Instead he just kept his mouth shut.

"So you really think Yumi's mad at us?" Odd said.

"Probably." Ulrich replied. "Either that or she's too busy to answer. I'm going to guess she's mad for sure."

"I guess that just leaves you and me," Odd said. He then perked up, and a broad grin crossed his face. "Hey, we could go find Sissi. I'm sure she won't be busy."

"Are you serious?" Ulrich made a face at Odd. "Why are you so interested in seeing Sissi all of a sudden?"

"I already told you. I have to see it with my own eyes." Odd's voice had risen to a whiny pitch. "Otherwise I'll never have any peace for the rest of my life."

Ulrich continued to stare at Odd like he had completely lost his mind. Then he began to suspect it might, in fact, be the other way around. The people around him seemed to be making things very difficult for him today. If he hadn't gone crazy yet, he probably would soon enough. In any case, he was highly opposed to granting Odd's request, but if he said no to him now, he would only delaying the inevitable. Odd would never let it go until he finally caved. Better to get it over with now. "Fine. We'll go find Sissi. But I'm not making any promises. She could say no herself, if we even manage to find her."

"I can live with that," Odd said cheerfully. "Lead the way, Romeo."

Ulrich winced. "And can you please stop calling me that?"

Odd didn't answer. Somehow that was even more annoying than if he had followed up with another one of his wisecrack remarks. Ulrich made a mental note to exact due vengeance when the time was right. For now he just wanted to make sure he made it through the rest of the day without somehow triggering the apocalypse.

* * *

"You didn't seriously just ignored a call from Ulrich?"

The look Jeremie was giving Yumi was one of utter astonishment amplified to the extreme. The two of them were standing just beyond the entrance to the southern quad as Yumi casually slipped her phone back into her pocket as if she had simply snubbed some random telemarketer. Jeremie just blinked at her in further confusion, helpless to do anything but wait for her response. Again, he tried unsuccessfully to make sense of this strange turn his day had unexpectedly taken. He absently rubbed the tender skin around his left wrist where Yumi had, only moments ago, been latched onto him with a vice like grip.

Yumi, who appeared entirely nonchalant about the matter, gave a simple shrug. "Well he did ditch me yesterday after school and then again today during lunch. And he still hasn't even bothering to give me an explanation, so I don't think he deserves any special treatment from me, now does he?" Then she flashed her teeth in a fiendish grin. "And besides, I've got much more important business to attend to right now."

There was that unnerving sense of foreboding again as Yumi eyed him with purpose. Jeremie was afraid to ask the obvious question.

"Like what, exactly?"

In reply, Yumi leaned forward, bringing her face close to his, her eyes full of mischief. "You, Jeremie Belpois, are officially my prisoner for the rest of the day, and I've got some very special plans for you."

Jeremie stared at her in silence for a time as he considered the abrupt turn of fate that had led him to this predicament. He had been in the process of stowing his school supplies in his dorm room following the end of classes when she had appeared seemly out of nowhere and grabbed hold of him like a raptor snatching up her prey mid-flight. "You are coming with me," was all she had said as she proceeded to drag him from his room, completely immune to his protests. She hadn't let him go until she had gotten the phone call from Ulrich. By then they had already made it outside, well away from security of his private quarters.

"Would it make a difference if I said no to whatever it is you're planning?" He asked, already knowing it wouldn't.

The fiendish glint left her eyes then, and Yumi's smile turned playful. It only made her appear slightly less threatening. "Kidnappings don't work that way, Jer."

"Yeah, well you didn't have to kidnap me, you know. You could have just tried talking to me like a normal person." Jeremie raised his eyebrows with emphasis. "What's this even about anyway? I was just about to get started on school work before you swooped in and abducted me like a maniac."

Yumi shook her head as if she held absolute authority over the matter. "That can wait. You said you needed an excuse to get out, so I'm giving you one, whether you like it or not. No supercomputers, no Lyoko, and _no school work_. Just you and me enjoying a nice afternoon together. You know, like _normal people_?"

Jeremie rolled his eyes at the jab. "Well, since I obviously don't have a say in the matter, I should at least get a vote on whatever it is we decide to do. After all, you seem to insist this is for _my_ benefit."

Yumi made a prolonged show of considering his proposal. The mischievous glint had returned. "If you cooperate, I'll consider letting you pick one of the things we do while we're out. _IF_ you cooperate." She then locked eyes with him in a display of an alpha asserting her dominance over a subordinate.

Jeremie could only shake his head. He only had himself to blame for the position he now found himself in. He had torn off the shackles binding him to Lyoko and knocked down the walls of his own isolation. Of course Yumi would be waiting for him on the other side, ready to take advantage of his new found freedom. But he could easily think of much worse company to keep for an afternoon, and he really did miss spending time with her. Not to mention he really could use the distraction. There were certain things he'd rather not think about for the time being, certain duties he still had yet to fulfill before he could call his business with Lyoko over and done for good. In time. For now, at least, he would let Yumi take him on whatever adventures she had planned for him.

"So where are we off to first?"

Yumi's smile was a portrait pure satisfaction. "Follow me."


End file.
